ALT-NA-AIRGST. 49 



wound about among birch-trees, meeting over the 

 stream, and spreading some little way up the brae on 

 either side ; interspersed with juniper bushes (the 

 berry of which, by-the-by, I was surprised to find not 

 at all unpalatable) and a thick layer of ferns below, 

 capable of covering any amount of black game, which, 

 by Donald's account, are numerous there ; but, having 

 no dog with us, we only saw one cock, which Walter 

 brought down at full eighty yards. While he was 

 reloading, we were provoked at seeing a roe-buck steal 

 away in alarm at the shot, but at a distance sufficiently 

 great to secure him from our guns. We watched him 

 springing lightly from rock to rock as he mounted the 

 hillside, until he disappeared in a gully; and then, 

 resuming our route, we presently passed beneath the 

 finest crag I ever beheld, a huge mountain mass of 

 rock rising perpendicularly to the height of 1100 feet, 

 its face almost as flat as a wall, save where immense 

 blocks, some of them as large as a three-storied house, 

 had been loosened by the thaws of spring, and fallen 

 to the ground below. The bottom of the glen was 

 strewed with these huge fragments, some half buried 

 in the soil, others shivered or cracked by the fall. 

 Donald took us to one spot, where an assemblage of 

 these, piled hap-hazard together as they had fallen, 

 had formed a large cavern, within which a flock of 

 sheep might safely find shelter. The name of this 

 cliff is Oreag-an-islar, or the crag of the eagle, from 

 the fact of an eagle having, from time immemorial, 

 had its eyrie in a large cleft near the top. As we 

 passed the foot, numbers of hawks were wheeling 

 about its face, and a constant clamour was kept up as 

 they came in hostile contact. The scenery now 

 became gradually of a more tame character ; and an 

 hour's stiff walking brought us once more to the 



