CH. VI. RHICONNICH. 87 



From Durness to Khiconnich is about fourteen 

 miles of hilly road, passing through the same 

 description of rocky country, abounding in wild- 

 cats, martens, and other animals of prey. There 

 is a loch about two miles from Durness where I 

 was told that char are very plentiful. All the 

 lochs abound in excellent trout. 



We reached Khiconnich, a tolerable inn, but 

 certainly not so well kept as many others in Suther- 

 landshire, at eleven o'clock, and immediately started 

 for a lake some two or three miles off, where the 

 osprey was said to build. The way to it was far 

 too rocky and steep to take the boat, so we only 

 took my swimming belt, as Dunbar offered to 

 swim out to the nest, if not too far from the shore. 

 We had a very rough walk of the longest two 

 miles that I ever met with. Our route was over 

 a continuous range of rocky ground — so broken 

 that we seldom found a flat place to put our feet 

 on. We did not find the right lake immediately, 

 but at last saw from a height a larger piece of 

 water than any we had hitherto passed, and at 

 some two hundred yards from the shore there was 

 the conical-shaped rock, which the osprey always 

 seems to choose for her nesting place. 



On examining the rock with the glass we im- 

 mediately saw the nest, and the white head of the 



