WILD SPORTS OF THE HIGHLANDS 



ing that I had to pass through two or three other burns, 

 one of them, at least, much larger than any I had already 

 crossed. I had now to make my way over a long flat, cover- 

 ed with coarse grass, and full of holes of water and rotten 

 bog. I never walked a more weary mile in my life, sinking, 

 as I did, up to my knees at nearly every step. When in the 

 middle of this, I saw three hinds and a calf walk deliberate- 

 ly along a ridge not three hundred yards from me. I had to 

 lead the hound for some distance, as she lost all her fatigue 

 on coming on their scent, which she did as we passed their 

 track. I made no attempt on them, knowing the useless 

 state of my rifle. We kept on, and at last got across all the 

 burns excepting the largest, which was still between me 

 and my dry clothes and dinner. I had now got quite high 

 up in the barren hill, leaving everything but rock and 

 heather far belowme, thebirch-woods not extending above 

 half a mile from the river. I came here to another long flat 

 piece of ground; and having to make many windings and 

 turnings to cross different small streams, I suddenly dis- 

 covered that I had entirely lost my points of the compass. 

 So, sitting down, I tried to make out which way the wind 

 blew, as my only guide. This soon set me right; and after 

 another hour or two of weary walking, I found myself on 

 the hill-top almost immediately overhanging the Lodge, 

 the smoke from whose chimneys was a most welcome sight. 

 On getting to it, I found the river raging andpouring down 

 through its narrow banks in a manner that no one who has 

 not seen a Highland river in full flood can imagine, carry- 

 ingwithiteverykindof debris that its course could produce. 

 At eleven o'clock at night, when looking at it by the 



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