82 FIELD AND FERN. 



spring markets of April and May are for selling fat 

 cattle, twos and threes which have been wintered and 

 fed in Koss-shire; and in September and October 

 the winterers muster strong. The markets are held 

 on Lori Lovat's ground, and his lordship draws the 

 market customs. Striking the average for 1 863-64, 

 there were 1,843 cattle and 4,547 sheep at each of 

 these great spring markets, and 2,265 cattle and 

 7,429 sheep at each of the autumn ones. 



We hardly got a good general view of the more 

 cultivated part of the Isle till we had left Munlochy, 

 and scaled the hill beyond. Then looking forward 

 instead of backward, we soon espied the long-desired 

 and thickly-wooded Tomna-Hurich (or the Hill of 

 the Fairies) and Inverness, that town of pure Saxon 

 English and that cheerful portal of the North High- 

 lands. The mare jumped out of the ferry-boat into 

 the new county, striking sparks of fire from every hoof 

 in her hot haste to be done with oars and sails, and we 

 place her only too gladly in the hands of a professor 

 of shoeing, and rely for things in general upon 

 the boots at the Caledonian. We should think he 

 hardly ever took part in those running fights for 

 passengers, which raged with especial fury over the 

 bodies of foreigners throughout the season in the old 

 coaching- days; whereas the waiters seemed less digni- 

 fied, and much more of the figure for a skirmish. It 

 was a wonderful thing to watch that man taking his 

 station at the hotel door before service on Sunday 

 morning, and acting as consulting counsel to the 



