268 REMINISCENCES OF A SPOETSMAN. 



the slightest deviation or false step would have pre- 

 cipitated him into eternity, a misfortune that a few years 

 since befell his brother on the same spot, when in his 

 company. After waiting in a most painful state of 

 anxiety for nearly an hour, om- climber suddenly made 

 his appearance, and laughing, presented his prize." 



" In 1857, a shepherd named Ferguson, in the employ 

 of Mr. M'Ai'thur, of Ardmeanach, made a clever capture 

 of an eagle on the property of that gentleman. Having 

 found a ' braxy hog ' late one evening, he (the shepherd) 

 went to the hill early next morning for the purpose of 

 fetching the carcase home, and having his attention 

 arrested by the motion of some animal on the body of 

 the sheep, he approached cautiously, and discovered the 

 intruder to be an enormous eagle, so busily engaged 

 tunnelling the body of the sheep as to be wholly unaware 

 of his approach. Watching the motion of the bird, 

 standing still as it withdrew to gorge what it had ex- 

 cavated, and only approaching when its head was 

 sheathed in the breastbone of the sheep, he was enabled 

 by a sudden spring to disable it so far as to effect, though 

 not without the aid of his dog, and after suffering a 

 great deal in the encounter himself, the capture of the 

 bird alive. 



" It measured seven feet six inches from point to point 

 of its wings, and is one of the largest that has been 

 seen in the part of the country where it was taken for 

 years. 



" A pair, of which it is one, have for more than fifty 

 years been known to frequent and build in the crags 

 above Inchkenneth, but without bringing eaglets to 

 maturity, so far as is known, and the shepherds in the 

 district hail with no small degree of satisfaction the 



