DRIFT. 21 



most of these wilds. Tall and gaunt he was, over 

 six feet high, with dark eyes and hair, apparently 

 in the prime of life. His return greeting told me 

 he hailed from Scotland. 



The offer of tobacco proving acceptable, he and I 

 sat down on the side of his overturned barrow, and 

 settled down for a talk. 



" You are not a native of this part of the country, 

 I fancy ? " he remarked, giving me a keen look. 



" No ; like you, I have drifted this way not so far 

 from home as yourself, though." 



We soon found congenial topics for conversation ; 

 his speech and manners showed he had once led a 

 very different life from his present one. Christopher 

 North, Wilson the great American ornithologist, 

 Burns, and the Ettrick Shepherd we discussed 

 pleasantly together. 



He had been head - forester on some estate in 

 Scotland, he told me ; had shot the red deer and 

 the eagle, the seal too, and caught the salmon in 

 the far North. The Bass Rock with its host of sea- 

 birds he had been very familiar with, when catch- 

 ing gannets "gants," he called them. He had 

 springed " tammy nories " or puffins in plenty, 



