STRATHPEFFER. 77 



and there with fir or plumed with birch. The grey 

 crag pierces the moor, the grey mist trails wearily along 

 the hill-summits. A marked feature of the scenery is 

 the gracefully drooping, delicately waving, birch foliage, 

 which stoops to the frequent watercourse or hangs tremul- 

 ous over the surface of the lake, the white stems relieved 

 against the russet heath, or vying with the whiter foam of 

 the cascade. Over all towers the bald forehead of Ben 

 Wyvis, a thousand feet above the highest of the encircling 

 hills, and with a few white snow-gleams lingering among 

 its crags and corries even in the height of summer. Be- 

 tween the ridges and in the basins of the hills, the lakes 

 are numerous, and from the higher elevations, as the eye 

 looks through curtains of mist, opening and closing in 

 majestic change, the broad flash of their golden mirrors, 

 girdled by the ebon hills, is seen striking upwards with 

 a resplendence never to be forgotten. 



The gentler aspects of the scenery appear, however, 

 to have chiefly attracted Miller. ' Strathpefler,' he 

 wrote to Baird, ' one of the finest valleys in this part of 

 the country, lies within five miles of Conon-side. My 

 walks occasionally extended to it; and I still retain a 

 vividly-pleasing recollection of its enchanting scenery, 

 with the more pleasing features of the scenes through 

 which I passed on my way to it. There is in its vicinity 

 a beautiful little lake, which contains a wooded island. 

 Along the banks of this lake I have sauntered for whole 

 hours ; and from the green top of Knockferrol, one of 

 the hills by which the valley is bounded, I have seen the 

 sun sink behind Ben Wyvis, without once thinking that 

 I was five miles from my place of residence.' 



But he was not exclusively engaged on these occasions 

 in view-hunting. ' I have not even yet/ he adds, ' summed 

 up the whole of my evening amusements. They were 



