



vii.] lURlilKD LIFE. 185 



' Yesterday I went from Fort William to Loch Eilt. 

 B is the place where the two men were found dead 

 last year. This morning I went to the top of a hill 

 marked A by the dotted line, to Loch Treig, and so 

 down here'. I am very, very tired, but have been often 

 and often thinking of you and my little ones. I shall 

 probably make to-morrow a short day, and get back to 

 William on Saturday. Does it not give you a 

 good idea of my Ben that I shall have been three days 

 in going round it, and travelled nearly seventy miles? I 

 am greatly surprised how much insight I have got into 



geology of this difficult country during the few fine 



a 1 have had ; but I am quite satisfied that, to do the 

 thing properly, I must sit down before Ben Nevis for 

 two or three months, and use every fine day. Do you 

 think, darling, you would not dislike it very much, 



IIILT to this wild place, and under the tempestuous 

 and me rambling about the hills to places where, 



D with a pony, I would not like my wife to go ? I 



have really been looking what alternatives there would be, 



and 1 lind none except living in the inn, which is most 



comfortable, but in the heart of this poky village; or 



to take Glen Nevis House a shooting quarter just at 



the foot of the Ben. I was through the house, and it is 



:'ortablv furnished ; but it is in such a wild, solitai v 



glen, overhung by the mountain, 1 think you would not 



lik. 



TOUT WILLIAM, Sunday evtning, May 28M, 1848. 



' I wrote you a long letter only a few hours ago, but 



r you to lose a post, and I am going to stait 



ly for Ben Nevis, and shall not be back till late. This 



i a Mipcrh day I'.eii Nevis as clear as crystal. I 



od to-morrow. This is the first 



had a comfortable dinner, or hoi meat, since 



v week. It is not ten, and 1 am \\riling by 



da\li;jht. I have been reading all your letters, and am 



ply inteivMed in all you tell me. 1 am BO rejoiced 



with vour arronni . hildn n : thej did BO v. 



