A HEED DISCOVERED. 75 



exceedingly alarming ; your soil is culpably ambitious and 

 aspiring 



Superas evadere ad Anras, 



Hoc opus, hie labor est. 



I thought myself as good as any of you at first, but that 

 struggle up the Meal-ower (I think you call it) undeceived 

 me. A hundred yards of such a steep is, as Falstaff says, 

 ' three score and ten miles to me.' But by Jove I'll have a 

 pull for it ; andiamo dunque, andiamo pure, and now 

 beat me again, if you can." 



The party proceeded obliquely up the hill eastwards, the 

 files covering each other, and all masking themselves as 

 much as possible behind knolls and blocks of gneiss or 

 granite, under cover of which they repeatedly examined 

 the country with their glasses. Had the fate of a whole 

 army been dependent upon discovering and circumventing 

 an ambuscade, no better tact or caution could have been 

 observed. And now they had just gained such an ascend- 

 ancy of the mountain, as would enable them to examine 

 Glen Mark and the hill side beyond it, called Sroin-a-chro. 

 This was an anxious time for the ground was so pre- 

 cipitous, or, in other words, so favourable for the sport, and 

 Tortoise was so intimately acquainted with it, that good 

 success might be expected if there was no lack of deer. 

 The little party took care to keep below the sky lines ; and 

 all lay down in the heather except Tortoise and Fraser, 

 who crept forward on their hands and knees without 

 their caps, and then extended themselves on the ground, 

 resting their glasses on the little eminence in front of them : 

 these they moved slowly and steadily to all the favourite 

 spots. 



" Nae thing can I see forebye a few hinds on the 

 Craggan-breach. Surely the glen can no want for harts ?" 



" Heaven forbid, Peter ; but I fear it does, unless they 

 -are lying further on. There is a great deal of ground which 

 we cannot see from hence, you know." 



Fraser now looked intently for a long while at the same 

 spot, and would pay no heed to any thing that was said to 

 him. But when at length he turned back his head, there 

 was such a relaxing smile on his face, as made it perfectly 



