Wanderings of it Naturalist 



cairn was so ice-encrusted as to be almost unrecognizable, 

 while across the depths of the Garbh Choire the great hill of 

 Braeriach stood out, free of mist to the summit. The whole 

 of that hill was of unrelieved white, save where the infant 

 Dee, fresh from its source at the Wells of Dee on the 

 plateau of Braeriach, fell in cascades down the dark rocks 

 of the corrie known as Fuar Garbh Choire, or the Cold 

 Rough Corrie. 



Curiously enough, although the west top — sometimes 

 known as Einich Cairn — of Braeriach was clear, dense white 

 clouds at a lower level hid Glen Einich and Sgoran Dubh. 



Almost due north from the summit of Cairn Toul the un- 

 relieved whiteness of the Lairig was broken by two small 

 dark circles — the unfrozen Pools of Dee, set in a Polar 

 expanse. 



Beyond them the hill of Cairngorm appeared, with mist 

 on its slopes, while across the valley of the Dee, Ben 

 MacDhui was now clear to its summit. 



Lochan Uaine, or the Green Lochan, nestling at a height 

 of 3,000 feet in the north corrie of Cairn Toul, was so covered 

 with ice and snow as to be almost unrecognizable, and away 

 south of us that other high-lying loch — Loch an Stuirteag — 

 beside the north slopes of Monadh Mor, was in like 

 case. 



The head waters of the Geusachan, where that burn has 

 its source just west of Cairn Toul, were entirely hidden be- 

 neath the snow, so that it was difficult to believe a fair-sized 

 burn flowed imprisoned through the snow-clad corrie. 



To-day there was no distant view, except southward, 

 where Beinn a' Ghlo and the hills about Glen Shee and the 

 Cairnwall stood out clearly. North and west, clouds of grey 

 white vapour hung low on the hills, seeming to presage a 

 fall of snow, and these clouds near the sun were transformed 

 by warm rosy tints. 



On the summit of Cairn Toul an average depth of about 

 three feet of snow covered the ground, and the thermometer 



196 



/ 



