32 LOCH CRERAN. 



cottage of the shepherd whose children we met by the 

 river; and the neat, well-kept place and little garden, with 

 the patch of oats and potatoes, and good stretch of grazing 

 for his cow, show how snug and comfortable thrift and 

 energy can make a family even in a rarely-visited Highland 

 glen. The bog myrtle scents the air as we trample through 

 it, but the heath is everywhere dull, save where the bell 

 heather shows in brilliant purple patches. This heather 

 seems very frequently to spring up when the common 

 heath has been burned down, as if it had been lying perdu, 

 crushed by its more vigorous and prosperous connection, 

 and ready to take immediate advantage of its misfortune. 

 The sphagnum moss is deep and wet, and we have to 

 pick our steps warily; but the whole glen is workable and 

 drainable, and those who live in the moist West cannot 

 look upon it as uninhabitable, in the face, too, of the 

 particularly vigorous dwellers in the cottage by the river 

 Teighl. Quite a fine domain it would make, with a 

 glorious view towards Linnhe and Morven, and Ben Breac 

 looking down with complacent self-satisfaction over the 

 wooded snuggery beneath it. The river still flows free 

 and strong, and we are approaching the very top of the 

 glen, where it is met by the sloping guard of hills. What 

 violent torrents all those streams are in the winter and 

 the rain time, when the cloud king hurls them downward 

 impetuously, with heaps upon heaps of fractured rock in 

 their train. 



At the very top of the glen, on the left hand, there 

 enters one such wild torrent called the " torrent of the 

 cleft " Esnagara, over quite a morain of small boulders ; 

 and up this narrow gulch we keep towards the summit of 

 the hills. Ere we proceed far we have to cross again and 

 again the stream that rushes downward, and so find that 



