APPENDIX. 311 



of the extraordinary peculiarities of the inhabitants of 

 certain others. 



Many of these lovely sheets of water are studded over 

 with birch-clad islets, under the branches of which nourish 

 the giant fronds of the great royal fern (Osmunda regalis). 

 Other islets are heather-clad, a few grassy, and all are 

 sown or planted by nature's own hand only. 



Nor is life absent here in the bright summer-time. 

 The sweet plaintive song of the willow - warbler, the 

 startling cry of the common sandpiper, the trill of the 

 dunlin, the " Teoch-vingh " of the greenshank — from 

 which this last species gets its Gaelic name — or the wail 

 of the curlew, and the discontented chatter of the gulls, 

 are ever constant to the ear. The heron builds her 

 unshapely nest on birch-trees, only a few feet from the 

 ground, and the hooded crow flies silently on predatory 

 quest intent, whilst close to shore, off some green island 

 in the centre, swims a black-throated diver, occasionally 

 uttering his hoarse and gutteral greeting to his mate, as 

 she sits on her two dark olive eggs, only a few feet from 

 the water's edge. 



Principal amongst the lochs of Assynt and the west of 

 Scotland for their beauty are Assynt ; for its grandeur 

 Beannoch, near Loch Inver ; and Loch Awe, near Inch- 

 nadamph, for quiet loveliness and loneliness ; Loch Cama, 

 near Aultnagealgach, for its grand background of hill and 

 mountain, and its wood-clad islands ; and Loch Urigill, 

 also near Aultnagealgach, for the bleakness of its surround- 

 ings, and of the Cromalt Hills, and its own vividly-green 

 contrasts and innumerable water-fowl. There are many 

 others, too numerous to name, but we must not omit men- 

 tion of Loch Shin, a desolate and dreary expanse, narrow 

 and ditch-like, but rich in piscine treasure ; and Loch More, 

 Loch Stack, Loch Merkland, and Loch Griam, all lovely 

 in their own peculiarities of outline, foreground, and dis- 

 tance. High amongst the hills around Goberneasgach, in 

 the Duke of Westminster's deer-forest, are some curious 

 nooks and corners, and peculiar lakes, holding some strange 

 varieties of trout. At Durness there are others, such as 



