HEATHER BELLS IN SCOTTISH SCENERY. 



confusion, the gravestones of a long buried world, and 

 among which tower foxgloves of great size and beauty. 

 Above tower many huge spruce firs like giants with 

 drooping robes of green that love to sweep the earth. 

 Some of them have lost their lead, but another soon 

 takes its place and the disfigurement is speedily unno- 

 ticed in the clouds of foliage high up, its light green 

 tips all drenched in sunshine. Behind them the moun- 

 tains break away into the skies, their shoulders covered 

 with spires of young larch, while graceful birches come 

 down the foreground intermixed with the heavy hang- 

 ing sprays of beech like mountain nymphs which have 

 left their stern seclusion to draw near to man. In the 

 valley the bracken catches the sun's rays and midst 

 its glitter the Garry may be discerned of the color of 

 straw with boulders shining through its stream, like 

 masses of cairngorm when seen in the shade. Rain 

 has fallen amongst the mountains during the night, and 

 now the trees shake their leaves over the stream as 

 it roars underneath, and the foxgloves near it dance in 

 the echoes, and a thousand little burns running into it 

 trickle everywhere, through the lichen-spotted boulders. 

 What more typical picture could be selected for a wild 

 prospect of Highland Heather?" 



The Rev. Hugh Macmillan affords us another 

 picture : "How gorgeous is that miracle of blossoming 

 when summer, with her blazing torch has kindled the 

 dull brown Heather, and every twig and spray burst 

 into blushing beauty, and spread wave after wave of 

 rosy bloom over the moors, until the very heavens 

 themselves catch the reflection and bend enamoured 

 over it with double loveliness." 



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