HELMSDALE TO MEIKLE FERRY. 71 



Then we are seized with a desire to scale Ben 

 Vraggie, and find that reaching the Duke's Statue 

 by a short cut through the deep dingles of the 

 Mound Wood, so dear to woodcocks in the season, 

 is certainly not the shortest way ; but the view 

 of the Moray Firth, and the whole of that silent 

 coast along which we have wandered three summers, 

 and felt each time more loath to leave it, soon made 

 us forget the toil and the brambles. It is easy 

 enough sliding down again on to the clay lands 

 of Kirkton, and then comes a very Mamelon of a 

 crag, beneath which Hugh Miller, in his mason 

 days, is said to have first pondered over the Story 

 of the Rocks, within sight of "his own loved Cro- 

 marty." 



The goats and kids can hardly crop the lichens and 

 moss on it, and, falling over, leave their skins to 

 their country as purses for Highland regiments. 

 But the sun is sinking behind a chain of hills, 

 miles away near Strathfleet, and Tain is the 

 goal to-night. Quiet little Dornoch, with its 

 cathedral, the resting-place of the old Earls of 

 Sutherland, is hardly visible on the left, and 

 the dreaded Meikle Ferry is in front. We have 

 seen it under three different aspects : once when 

 the rowers had " been r 5 the sun/ 7 and the coach- 

 man, guard, and passengers were all fain to take 

 an oar; again, when Croall and Son had set up 

 a small steamer; and on this occasion, when at 

 the fifth and last attempt our recusant mare was 



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