LOCH AWE 57 



expedition to the mountains, from which they 

 never returned. 



' On a search being made their dead bodies 

 were found in the bothy, some considerably 

 mangled, but some were not marked by any- 

 wound. 



' It was visible that this had not been effected 

 by human agency : the bothy was torn from its 

 foundations and scarcely a vestige left of it, and 

 one huge stone, which twelve men could not have 

 raised, was tossed to a considerable distance. 



' On this event Scott's beautiful ballad of 

 " Glenfinlas " is said to have been founded.' 



As will be seen presently, Hogg was wrong 

 about ' Glenfinlas ' ; the boatman was acquainted 

 with a traditional version of that wild legend. I 

 found another at Rannoch. 



The Highland fairies are very vampirish. The 

 Loch Awe boatman lives at a spot haunted by a 

 shadowy maiden. Her last appearance was about 

 thirty years ago. Two young men were thrashing 

 corn one morning, when the joint of the flail broke. 

 The owner went to Larichban and entered an 



