360 AN ANGLER'S RAMBLES 



to the peculiar feature above described, gives the impression of 

 its being an inviting field for reptiles ; but, although in passing 

 to Loch Luichart I have crossed it frequently under that impres- 

 sion, I could never gain sight of anything more formidable than 

 the harmless sand-eft. This circumstance in itself was not sin- 

 gular, but it was rendered so in my estimation by the fact that I 

 rarely, when the weather was hot, ascended the contiguous hill, 

 Tor Achilty, without disturbing one or more adders, in places 

 seemingly less adapted for their abode ; and I was led accord- 

 ingly to give some credence to a notion long entertained among 

 the peasantry and pastoral population of Scotland, which at length, 

 after encountering a good deal of ridicule, has been accepted and 

 indorsed, subject to some degree of modification, by modern 

 naturalists. In my approach to the falls of the Conon by the 

 picturesque remains of forest glory which I have described, I was 

 invariably confronted by a huge goat, the most formidable and 

 noble-looking specimen of the Capra hircus I ever cast eye on. 

 To compare him, in point of size, to a red-deer, would be to 

 indulge in the hyperbolical ; but there was that in his appearance 

 and whole deportment which raised him, as an object of admira- 

 tion, to nearly the same level. Swarthy in colour, with masses 

 of hair hanging shaggily down over his flanks, a beard of patri- 

 archal growth, and horns of enormous length, thrown back in a 

 fine curve, so as almost to touch the shoulder-points, he seemed 

 an impersonation of the rugged and fantastic scenery round about, 

 reminding one of the wild hirsute figures introduced in classical 

 mythology into the orgies of Bacchus, or the Arcadian festivals 

 held in honour of Pan and the Fauns. There was, moreover, a 

 sort of negative history attached to him, for although the goat's 

 life is not reputed a long one, I could meet with no one in the 

 village of Scatwell, among the simple inhabitants of which he 

 was held in terror, who could remember him as a kid ; nor had 

 any claim ever been laid to him as a domestic animal. On the 



