APPENDIX. 311 



of the extraordinary peculiarities of the inhabitants of 

 certain others. 



Many of these lovely sheets of water are studded over 

 with birch-clad islets, under the branches of which nourish 

 the giant fronds of the great royal fern (Osmunda regalis). 

 Other islets are heather-clad, a few grassy, and all are 

 sown or planted by nature's own hand only. 



Nor is life absent here in the bright summer-time. 

 The sweet plaintive song of the willow -warbler, the 

 startling cry of the common sandpiper, the trill of the 

 dunlin, the " Teoch-vingh " of the greenshank from 

 which this last species gets its Gaelic name or the wail 

 of the curlew, and the discontented chatter of the gulls, 

 are ever constant to the ear. The heron builds her 

 unshapely nest on birch-trees, only a few feet from the 

 ground, and the hooded crow flies silently on predatory 

 quest intent, whilst close to shore, off some green island 

 in the centre, swims a black-throated diver, occasionally 

 uttering his hoarse and gutteral greeting to his mate, as 

 she sits on her two dark olive eggs, only a few feet from 

 the water's edge. 



Principal amongst the lochs of Assynt and the west of 

 Scotland for their beauty are Assynt; for its grandeur 

 Beannoch, near Loch Inver ; and Loch Awe, near Inch- 

 nadamph, for quiet loveliness and loneliness ; Loch Cama, 

 near Aultnagealgach, for its grand background of hill and 

 mountain, and its wood-clad islands ; and Loch Urigill, 

 also near Aultnagealgach, for the bleakness of its surround- 

 ings, and of the Cromalt Hills, and its own vividly-green 

 contrasts and innumerable water-fowl. There are many 

 others, too numerous to name, but we must not omit men- 

 tion of Loch Shin, a desolate and dreary expanse, narrow 

 and ditch-like, but rich in piscine treasure ; and Loch More, 

 Loch Stack, Loch Merkland, and Loch Griam, all lovely 

 in their own peculiarities of outline, foreground, and dis- 

 tance. High amongst the hills around Goberneasgach, in 

 the Duke of Westminster's deer-forest, are some curious 

 nooks and corners, and peculiar lakes, holding some strange 

 varieties of trout. At Durness there are others, such as 



