120 LOCH C RE RAN. 



other creature, marine or terrestrial, that is likely to make 

 night alarming or interesting, and would answer to the 

 peculiar name of " cheepuc." It is unnecessary to name 

 snipes, beetles, or any of the fish called gurnets, that are 

 well known as being musically inclined. 



We are quite "at sea" this week, revelling in the 

 unexpectedly fine weather, and unable fully to comprehend 

 the extent of our beatitude. We had come naturally to 

 hum the verse 



" The weather is not as it used to wis, 



The nights are terribly damp, 

 And I always his the rheumatiz- 

 Except when I have the cramp." 



But we are still in the middle of the winter in moist 

 Benderloch, although it is almost impossible fully to credit 

 the fact. Now that the weather is calm and dry, the 

 extreme mildness tells more forcibly. It is not enough 

 that primroses are full blown all around our dwelling, 

 that the birds in the stricken woods are singing as merrily 

 as in the opening spring time, but all nature is out of 

 joint and staggering about, like a schoolboy awakened 

 during a moonlight night and told that it is morning. 

 About a month ago we saw what we fancied a bird issue 

 from a shed and skirt the edge of a house, but our 

 companion declared it to be a bat. We had discredited 

 his sight, and forgotten the incident, when two days ago 

 in early dusk we found ourselves the centre for the 

 gyrations of an unmistakable bat, that continued to hunt 

 as steadily as in the summer time. It had evidently been 

 awakened by the mild temperature from an attempt at 

 hybernation, and finding its stomach awakening at the 

 same time, had gone forth to seek its prey. It is now 



