LOCH CRERAN. 



from the stakes alongside her palace garden a few beauti- 

 ful fungi, nicely scolloped and elegantly coloured, we find 

 the dye come off at once upon our fingers, and wonder 

 more is not done with these various cryptogamic plants 

 in the way of extracting their often brilliant hues. Even 

 the most sober-hued were largely used in former times as 

 sources from which to extract most useful and durable 

 colours, far surpassing the more fugitive or native dyes 

 that have nearly driven them alike from our knowledge 

 and our memory. On this southern side of the hills the 

 fungi are more abundant still than with us, as the clouds 

 first strike this face and pour their contents down the 

 cheeks. Even the broom and the gorse, dry as are their 

 stems, and hard in the grain as is their wood, are hang- 

 ing with pink and yellow clusters of brilliant-hued fungi. 

 This side of the hills is also the one to which the hares, 

 and game generally, more especially resort in the winter, 

 as they are perfectly aware that the mild winds, rain-laden 

 though they be, keep it clear of snow and frost, if at al\ 

 possible. But our eyes have been twice on the loch for 

 once they have been on the paper this last hour, watch, 

 ing with anxiety the progress of the four-oared boat in 

 the teeth of the gale, and as it has borne its burden 

 shorewards at last in safety, we breathe more freely and 

 lay down our pen. 



It has long ceased to be a question of how many years 

 have passed since we have had such and such a storm. 

 Now it is, whether to-day's storm or yesterday's was the 

 most violent. So far as our own feelings went (and we 

 passed during Friday over the greater part of the region 

 specially exposed to its visitation), we should have said 

 the gale of 22d November was the more severe. But 

 the consensus of opinion is everywhere against us, and 



