72 ON THE GRAMPIAN HILLS. 



to the height to be attained before commencing work r 

 was, to say the least, disheartening. " That's where 

 we are to commence to-morrow," said my host, point- 

 ing to a spot some seven or eight hundred feet above 

 the level of the winding road that leads from the 

 Spital of Glen Shee to Braemar, running through the 

 lovely valley of Glen Beg. I said but little, but 

 thought the more, feeling convinced in my own mind 

 that if I ever reached that height, it was as much as 

 I should be able to accomplish ; and as for walking 

 over such a wild, mountainous, and rough country in 

 pursuit of game, the idea seemed ridiculous, consider- 

 ing that I was not in training for walking, and was. 

 handicapped with the penalty of some sixty-five years. 

 I felt that the attempt would end in a miserable failure. 

 However, I determined to die game, and show that I 

 was not a dunghill-bred one, and with this resolve I 

 started on my first day's grouse-shooting. Before 

 commencing the steep climb, however, I had to go> 

 down a declivity and cross a somewhat wide, swift- 

 flowing burn. This was not an easy task, but I accom- 

 plished it, not, however, without some trouble, and 

 then I began to ascend the hillside. By the time I 

 had reached the height of five hundred feet I was. 

 breathless dead beat, in fact and sat down on a 

 big boulder-stone, and thought what a fool I was to 

 have imagined for a moment that I could walk over 

 such ground. The Cairnwall, a mountain over 3500 

 feet in height, was pointed out to me as being the 

 home of the ptarmigan, and I was told that part of 

 the first day's beat was the side of this Grampian 

 Hill, the summit of which I felt morally certain 

 would never be reached by me, and that if the. 



