5 4 SOUTHERN ESTUARIES 



Loch-an-Eilan lies in the narrow gorge between the 

 Cairngorm mountains and the hill of Ord Bain, bordered 

 by deep woods of tall and ancient pines, the remnants 

 of the original Caledonian forest. Near the western 

 shore, but wholly surrounded by the waters of the lake, 

 is an islet, covered by an ancient rectangular castle, said 

 to have formed one of the strongholds of the " Wolf 

 of Badenoch." Looking at the castle from the nearest 

 point on the shore, the angle on the left is seen to be 

 strengthened by a square tower, that on the right is 

 formed by a smaller turret, and piled on this to a height 

 of several feet, broad and substantial and enduring, is 

 the ospreys' eyrie. Year after year the birds have 

 travelled northwards to their ancient haunt, reaching 

 the old castle in the same week, and thrice, it is said, 

 upon the same day, April ist ; and the record of their 

 success or failure in rearing their brood is probably 

 more complete than that of any similar period of bird- 

 history yet preserved. The nest was seen by Mac- 

 Cullough, the geologist, in 1824. It was robbed by 

 Gordon-Cumming, afterwards known as the most 

 ruthless and destructive of all African hunters, who is 

 fabled to have carried an egg to the shore " in his 

 mouth," probably in his bonnet, held between his 

 teeth, as Lewis Dunbar carried the eggs which he 

 robbed from a similar eyrie, in company with St. John, 

 about the same time. Even after that date ospreys 

 built not only on the island castle, but in the giant firs 

 on the bank both of Loch-an-Eilan and the neighbour- 

 ing Loch Morlaich ; but the continuous felling of timber 



