JULY, 1881. 33 



the rocks we have to traverse are of a character such as 

 to try our feet severely. Only those in the very bed of 

 the stream are water-worn, the remainder being sharp 

 edged, as if fresh blasted from the steep cliffs on either 

 hand. Was not this the cliff where Donald captured the 

 eagle, and that where the raven loves to build its nest ? 

 Steep enough all the way, and yet all clothed in greenery 

 of bracken and heath, and young of the birch and moun- 

 tain ash, save where a new, fresh-cut face tells of a recent 

 fall of rock. Huge boulders, water-worn, there are also 

 here and there ; splendid granite of many colours, from 

 cream colour to red, from whence brought or how it 

 would be difficult to say without a careful survey of the 

 neighbourhood. This mass seems similar to the granite 

 of Bunaw, on the other side of the hill ; but that is like 

 nothing we know in the district. What power short of a 

 glacier or an iceberg could have thrown that monster 

 boulder in the middle of the stream, large enough to 

 build a church ? Has it descended from the summit as 

 the stream cut its path under it through the hill, or only 

 been undermined as the gully widened ? 



" Here is one ! " shouts our comrade, and sheltering 

 under a large stone is a little group of the friends we are 

 seeking, and have scrambled so far to obtain. We still 

 clamber up, however, and conjure up the placid smile 

 that would scramble up the cheek of our shoemaker did 

 he but know we were in such quarters. Round a corner, 

 and a wonderful grey mare's tail falls in a side basin, 

 whence a scudding streamlet joins the one we are ascend- 

 ing. Quite a fairy corner, and we half expect an appari- 

 tion of a fairy chieftian in kilt and claymore to demand 

 our credentials and punish our audacity. We have left 

 the stream, and are crawling up the loose and dangerous 



