CHAP. vi. JOURNEY TO MORVEN. 65 



you should ever get into ; but take heart, for assuredly 

 the sun will rise again, and roll them up and away, to 

 be seen no more." 



In a future letter to his sister, written on the 12th 

 of November, he thus describes his journey to Morven 

 top : 



"On Tuesday last I set out at two o'clock in the 

 morning to go to the top of Morven. Morven is a hill 

 to the south of this, and by measurement on the map 

 28 miles as the crow flies. But taking into account the 

 windings and turnings of the road up hill, down hill, 

 and along valleys it is a good deal more : say 32 miles 

 from Thurso to Morven top. 



" For the first 18 miles I had a road : the rest of 

 the way was round lochs, across burns, through mires 

 and marshes, horrid bogs, and hummocky heaths. I 

 tucked up my trousers, and felt quite at ease, though I 

 was ankle deep, and often deeper, for fifteen minutes on 

 end, and sometimes more. When I had a marsh to 

 wade I had it level, but when I had heather I had an 

 awful amount of jumping. ... At last, however, I 

 found myself on the top of the famous Morven. 



" The Caithness people have few hills. They think a 

 mighty deal of Morven and Maiden Pap and Skerry Ben. 

 But these hills are not much to boast of. They are none 

 of them as big as books make them, and I laughed when 

 I thought of what people had said to me about this 

 wonderful Morven. One said that it was so very high 

 that it would take half a day to climb from the toot of 

 the hill to the top. Another account, given in a book, 



