CH. XXVI. WILD-GEESE. 99 



recollected having seen some dead or sickly sheep 

 during his flight homewards the evening before. 



I had several hours to spare before the time 

 of meeting Donald, so I diverged here and there, 

 wherever I thought it likely I should find deer, and 

 then kept a northerly course in order to look at 

 some burns and grassy ground near the loch, ac- 

 cording to Malcolm's advice. The loch itself was 

 bright and beautiful, and the small islands on it 

 looked like emeralds set in silver. With my glass 

 I could distinguish eight or nine wild-geese, as they 

 ruffled the water in their morning gambols, having 

 probably just returned from grazing on the short 

 green grass that grew on different spots near the 

 water's edge. These grassy places were the sites 

 of former habitations, and were still marked by the 

 line of crumbled walls, now the constant resort of 

 the few wild-geese that breed every year on the 

 lonely and unvisited islands of the loch. 



Below me there was a capital flat for deer, a long 

 sloping valley with a winding burn flowing through 

 the middle, along the banks of which were grassy 

 spots where they constantly fed. I searched this 

 long and carefully with my glass, but saw nothing 

 excepting a few small companies of sheep which 

 were feeding in different flocks about the valley. 

 So famous, however, was this place as the resort of 



