THE WATER-VOLES. 129 



That such an animal inhabited Lochaber was accidentally revealed 

 to us two years ago, and so unmistakeably that there was no room 

 for doubt or hesitation in the matter. We were returning from 

 Fort- William on a beautiful summer afternoon, walking by the hill 

 route through Lundavra, when having already accomplished more 

 than half the distance at our best pace, we sat down to rest and 

 solace ourselves with a pipe not the Arcadian musical instrument, 

 observe, but the more prosaic article anathematised in the royal 

 Counterblast by the side of a canal-like reach in the River Rhi, 

 as it slowly winds through Glenshelloch, when our attention was 

 drawn to a splash in the water at a short distance above us, to 

 which, however, we gave but little heed, taking it for the lively 

 flop of a half-pound trout engaged in fly-catching for supper. 

 Another and a louder splash, however, aroused our curiosity, and 

 induced us to creep cautiously in the direction whence the sound 

 proceeded, and there, sure enough, disporting themselves round a 

 gnarled alder stump that projected into the stream from the water- 

 line on the opposite bank, were a pair of water-voles, full-grown, 

 and brisk and lively as ever we had seen them in our younger 

 days in the upper reaches of the beautiful Eden in Fifeshire, a 

 favourite habitat. After watching their gambols for some time, 

 we threw a pebble into the pool, when they instantly dived and 

 disappeared, only to emerge in a few seconds near a large boulder 

 further up the stream, behind which, and cunningly concealed 

 beneath the overhanging bank, was their hole, into which they 

 popped as readily as does an alarmed mouse into a wall crevice. 

 As they dived and pursued their subaqueous flight in the direction 

 of their hole, the eye could follow their every movement, for the 

 water was as clear as crystal. Keeping very near the bottom, it 

 seemed as if they progressed partly by swimming and partly by 

 running along the gravel, at any rate with amazing celerity and 

 ease. We noticed that about their necks and shoulders their pile 



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