ASCENT OF BEN-Y-VENIE. 71 



we shall have a fine command over all the deer that may 

 chance to be within miles of it." 



" Upon my word you try me hard, and, I believe, 

 really wish to prove your peat's antiseptic qualities upon 

 my frail body. The aerial perspective of that mountain's 

 crest is exceedingly alarming ; your . soil is culpably am- 

 bit ious and aspiring 



Superas evadere ad Auras, 



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 dependant upon discovering and circumventing 

 an ambuscade, no better tact or caution could have been 

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

 dency of the mountain, as would enable them to examine 

 Glen Murk 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 

 line ; and all lay down in the heather except Tortoise and 



F 4 



