160 LOCH CRERAN. 



thoroughly, they have not had their usual effect in giving 

 us low tides, so we conclude there is some south in the 

 wind elsewhere, and this we find is the case from the 

 weather report. Walking around the shore therefore 

 produced little of interest, and it is just too early on the 

 whole to find much novelty on land. We turn away from 

 the little bay and cross the bit of moor, when something 

 light and bright and lively flicks across before us and 

 alights on the bordering fence. This is the first wheatear 

 we have seen this season, and it continues to flit about as 

 restlessly as if it had already something to conceal. What 

 is that overhead, asks our companion, and we scarcely 

 wonder at the question, as the twitter of the descending 

 skylark is not sufficiently distinctive to enable us naturally 

 to compare it with its summer self. Still it is the skylark, 

 and it has been soaring heavenward, evidently as a sort 

 of preliminary canter. Left in the lurch, you are ! we 

 mutter, as we come upon a stretch of iris, shooting vigour- 

 ously from what has been a muggy spot for months ; but 

 now it is as dry and solid as could be desired, and the 

 chances are that the gay flowers of the " fleur de Us " will 

 never reach maturity. A very remarkable change this 

 spell of easterly wind has produced upon the country 

 after the long duration of leaden skies and constant down- 

 pour. Everything that could carry a lichen or a fungus 

 was laden with them. The very small branches of the 

 young larch, in damp, sheltered localities, were covered 

 with a species resembling blobs of half-cold glue ; every 

 paling-stob had circling rows of frills, or other class of 

 fungus, and a new vegetation of this description seemed 

 to have sprung into life in order to take advantage of the 

 new and suitable conditions. Now these are curling 

 everywhere into tinder, and what was really a charming 



