116 FORAYS AMONG SALMON AND DEER. 



three of them together. Anon the water-ousel shot out 

 from his perch under the bank, and scudding down the 

 stream, sought his meal in the shallows. A slight 

 whizzing noise overhead told of the woodcock taking 

 his recreation in the cool of the evening ; or his note, 

 something like the coo of the dove, remindedus that even 

 he forgot not his vesper hymn. 



As we were retracing our steps a light breeze sprang 

 up, a few clouds floated over the tops of the nearest 

 hill, and in a few moments a slight sprinkling of rain 

 caused us to accelerate our steps. We reached the 

 cottage, to find a meal prepared for us by the shepherd's 

 wife, consisting of boiled venison ham, to which, as 

 well as the next course of porridge and delicious cream, 

 we did ample justice. 



During the night there was a goodly fall of rain, the 

 wind increasing almost to a hurricane ; and when we 

 rose in the morning, though the air was again clear, 

 and the sky nearly cloudless, Gillespie expressed his 

 doubts as to whether we could make anything of it to- 

 day from the violence of the wind. However, as any- 

 thing was preferable to a day spent within doors, with 

 no resources to fly to for amusement, we decided on 

 sallying forth, and making the best of it. We took our 

 way, therefore, with the foxhunter as our guide, along 

 the bottom of a deep glen, thinking that there at 

 least, we should meet with less wind than in the more 

 exposed regions above ; but we soon found that there 

 was no escaping it. Such a wind I certainly never 

 before experienced. Each successive blast seemed to 

 pierce through one's dress, searching and chilling to the 

 very bones and marrow. Now and then, as it whirled 

 violently round the angles of some huge rock, a sharp 

 report was produced, like the crack of a hunting-whip ; 

 so that the approach of a blast might be learnt while 



