AND ANGLING SONGS. 'IOI 



quarters at Georgetown the township itself being concentrated, 

 or nearly so, within the walls of the small inn. Early next morn- 

 ing I struck up the Gawin river, the proper continuation 

 towards its fountain-head, near Glens Coe and Etive, of the 

 Tummel. The course of this stream I pursued to where it is 

 temporarily lost in a shallow lake called Loch Eatach. In 

 shape of breeze and cloud, the weather proved favourable, and I 

 had the satisfaction of counting out exactly one hundred trout. 

 These, however, were mostly small, the average weight, in fact, 

 not exceeding quarter of a pound. 



On July 22d I passed over a heathy tract of country to the 

 Lyon Water, which communicates with the Tay. The morning 

 on which I set out was tolerably clear, but I well recollect how, 

 on gaining the heights above Loch Rannoch, a mist settled down 

 round about ; then succeeded a kind of drizzle, which gradually 

 lapsed into rain and violent wind. There was at that time no 

 road, and the landmarks I was counselled to steer by were en- 

 tirely shrouded up. In a wild, lonesome country, abounding in 

 swamps and there are scarcely any in Scotland drearier in their 

 character, and more to be dreaded than those in the neighbour- 

 hood of the moor of Rannoch the feeling of losing one's way is 

 by no means agreeable. I was in this predicament to a certain 

 extent, but I had a long stretch of daylight before me, as well 

 as the advantage which was given by the wind's blowing steadily 

 in one direction. Thus favoured, I pressed on with a resolution 

 which only began to waver after a ten hours' march, when the 

 sensation of tiredness took possession of my limbs, and that 

 bewildering feeling crept over me which few who have not been 

 similarly circumstanced can have a correct notion of. At this 

 juncture, and just as I was on the point of stretching my soaked 

 and exhausted limbs on the heather, a break in the cloud over- 

 head betokened the bursting forth of the afternoon's sun. A 



