134 STUDIES OF NATURE 



traversing for the sake of the new views you get 

 of familiar places. Yonder is our old friend 

 the Cioch-na-h'oighe. My sketch-book already 

 shows a score of separate outlines assumed 

 by this most Protean of peaks ; yet here is an 

 entirely different one. From this elevation the 

 peculiar character of the North Glen comes 

 out with great force. It is, as I have already 

 said, somewhat monotonous and melancholy; 

 yet it is full of soft and wide-sweeping lines 

 upon which the eye dwells with pleasure ; and 

 beyond, the great hills which look into it but 

 are not of it, present their wildest northern 

 fronts. 



When we get near the ridge we find that we 

 have lost the road, so we make straight across 

 and towards the sea. There is not much choice. 

 It is either knee-deep in stiff heather and fern, 

 or ankle-deep in bog and moss. Nor are we 

 sure of our way on the other side ; so, as night 

 is coming on, we hasten forward. The declivity 



