Wanderings of a Naturalist 



south'ard the big hill of Beinn a' Ghlo, mist-capped, but 

 •with large snowfields on its lower slopes. Northwards the 

 valley of the Spey was bright in clear sunshine, while behind 

 it stood out the broad outline of Ben Wyvis, and farther away 

 the conical peak of, I think, Ben Mor Assynt. An eddy of 

 wind from now onward rushed through the Lairig from the 

 north, in gusts attaining the force of a gale, and at times 

 catching up the waters of the March burn — ^where, indeed, it 

 was not running beneath a covering of ice and snow — and 

 lifting them up in spindrift. 



In the calm intervals the roar of the wind in the rocks 

 mingled with the rush of the burn, and in the dark, swirling 

 mists and great snow-filled corries one felt that here indeed 

 was the very heart of the hills. 



A couple of miles below the summit of the pass I saw a 

 covey of grouse flying in the same agitated manner as the 

 ptarmigan, and in this case also an eagle — possibly the same 

 bird — w^as the cause of alarm. 



And now the woods of Rothiemurchus were showing. Big 

 areas of Scots firs interspersed, here and there, with weeping 

 birches with foliage of golden tint, or rowans with their 

 leaves of sombre red. And what a wonderful crop of rowan 

 berries covered the trees that autumn ; indeed, so heavy were 

 the clusters of fruit that the whole tree in some cases drooped. 



Many stags were roaring in the early twilight of this Octo- 

 ber afternoon ; one in particular, a fine heavy beast, with a 

 good head, threw out his challenge persistently with a deep 

 and strong voice. 



Looking backward now, the whole range of the Cairngorms 

 stood out in the fading light. Apparently from the position 

 of the wreaths there had been two distinct driftings of snow 

 — one from the north-west and north, the other from a 

 southerly direction. The deep corries of Cairngorm held 

 a great snowfield with its cornice showing even at a distance 

 of quite six miles. In depth it must have been at least from 

 twenty to thirty feet, probably much more. The upper slopes 



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