122 FORAYS AMONG SALMON AND DEER. 



before a large peat fire, blazing on the hearth, with 

 walls three feet thick to shut out the wind, and a well- 

 loaded board wherefrom to console the inner man. 



After doing justice to the cold grouse, venison cutlet, 

 porridge, and cream, as they only can whose limbs 

 have been braced, whose spirits have been exhilarated, 

 and whose appetites have been sharpened by mountain 

 air and mountain exercise, we turned our feet to the 

 hearth ; and there, over a. glass of fine old mountain 

 dew, theorised over the events of the day; discovering 

 with singular acuteness, now that it was too late to 

 remedy them, the point where each blunder had been 

 committed, and the exact cause of each failure ; 

 forgetting forsooth, in our self-complacency, as too 

 many other wisacres had done before us, that it is a 

 far easier matter to criticise than to originate ; that the 

 veriest blockhead may see where another has erred, but. 

 set him to act himself, and it is ten to one he will not 

 mend the matter. At an early hour we threw ourselves 

 on our couch, hoping to rise in the morning with more 

 propitious weather. But it was in vain, for some 

 time at least, that we sought repose. The wind had 

 increased to a perfect tempest, and though our eyelids 

 weighed heavily, the uproar without would not suffer 

 us to slumber. Indeed each moment threatened a 

 catastrophe, and kept us on the alert. The approach 

 of every consecutive blast could be distinctly traced 

 by the ear, as we lay listening on our heather pallet. 

 First, there was a low sound, a kind of suppressed 

 roar, as the wind soughed and eddied its way along 

 the face of a huge cliff, distant about a mile, and 

 rising perpendicularly to the height of nearly fifteen 

 hundred feet. Then followed a steady rushing noise, 

 as it swept furiously across the loch, and over the open 

 moor below, with nothing to check its progress. This 



