A Day on the High Tops 



everywhere great cornices hung. In Cairn Toul there lies, 

 sheltered from sun and wind, a gloomy hill loch, Lochan 

 Uaine. To-day this loch was entirely covered with a sheet 

 of unbroken ice over which there spread great cracks. The 

 last occasion on which I had seen this loch was on the 

 preceding November 7, when it was frozen hard, so that it 

 had been in the grip of the ice for close on seven months. 

 Crossing by the ridge of Creag na Leacainn, I descended to 

 the Lairig, just before the commencement of the wood that 

 extends up the pass a little way from Rothiemurchus. On 

 my descent I passed many ptarmigan, and was interested to 

 find at elevations ranging from 2,800 to 2,700 feet quite a 

 number of small and stunted specimens of the Scots pine — 

 Pinus sylvestris. I had once found an isolated specimen at 

 this height in the Garbh Choire, but had never seen a number 

 of trees growing at such an altitude. The seed had probably 

 been blown up from the pines which grow in the Lairig, not 

 far from the hillside. 



In the glen the heat was intense, and Allt na Beinne-Moire 

 was in full flood with the melting of the snows. All around 

 was the aroma from many pines and birches, so that it was 

 a pleasure to pass through the woodlands filled with 

 the young growth of springtide. Two capercaillie rose at 

 my feet, and redstarts flitted from tree to tree as I passed. 

 At Aviemore that night the temperature at 9 p.m. exceeded 

 70 degs. Fahr., and not a breath of air stirred. Spring 

 had been backward, but she came at length to the hills 

 in the form of full summer, and it was not long ere the 

 snows had gone, and in their stead the high tops were 

 clothed with green hill grasses and tinged with the flowers 

 of many plants of the creeping azalea and the cushion pink. 

  » * * » 



Less than a fortnight later a great change had taken place 

 on the hills. From May 27 until the morning of June 5 

 the high tops were almost continuously hidden by mist and 

 rain; but on June 5, after a cold and misty morning, the 



55 



