ANECDOTES. 47 



with a gun, and, thinking that he might possibly get a 

 salmon for his supper, he shot the eagle, and at the 

 same time, to his surprise, killed a large otter; the 

 eagle's talons being so deeply imbedded in its back 

 that the two could not be separated. Now and then a 

 lamb is carried off; but this is a cqmparatively rare 

 occurrence the fox being a much more deadly enemy. 

 Within the last fortnight, however, an eagle has done 

 very serious damage in a neighbouring strath. 

 Pouncing suddenly on a foal, while roaming on the 

 hillside with its mother, the bird plunged its talons 

 into the eyes of the poor creature, which in its terror 

 rushed headlong over a precipice, and was at once 

 killed by the fall. Such displays of his power, how- 

 ever, as these are exceedingly few and far between. 

 While, therefore, it might be advisable to prevent their 

 frequent occurrence, by keeping down the number of 

 eagles below certain limits, it seems cruel and unjust 

 to extirpate or banish from our islands so noble a relic 

 of its ancient state of savage wildness. To me the 

 Highlands will lose much of their grandeur and charms 

 when the eagle exists only in their legends and remini- 

 scences. 



At length we reached our destination, Glen-nam- 

 haidh ; and a spot more worthy of its name was seldom 

 trodden by the foot of man. In shape resembling a 

 horseshoe rather elongated, the valley forms a kind of 

 amphitheatre ; the sides, running up to the height of 

 1800 feet, and at the curved end rising very abruptly, 

 are lined with birch copses. Above the glen, on the 

 very top of the hill, is a mountain loch, called in Gaelic 

 " the frozen loch ; " and from this issues a stream, the 

 waters of which glide down a deep fissure in the face 

 of a huge black rock, forming a waterfall about 70 feet 

 high, and then tumble and dance over a series of 



