THUNDER-STORM. 235 



about Ben Fionan in our rear ; and ere we were half- 

 way down the other side of the hill, there was a com- 

 plete hurricane, accompanied by very loud thunder. On 

 reaching the foxhunter's cottage, which stood at the foot 

 of the hill, the rain was beginning to fall heavily, but the 

 cottage was of little use to us, as the wind had just 

 carried away half the thatch. As I passed the end of 

 the loch close by, the spray came flying over a small 

 hill about two hundred feet high and six hundred yards 

 across ; and before I reached home it had drenched me 

 to the skin. However, the goodly show of fish which 

 accompanied nfce more than counterbalanced any such 

 petty annoyances ; and I shall ever look back to those 

 two days and their incidents with pleasurable emo- 

 tions. 



I will now close this chapter by recounting the 

 deaths of two seals. 



I drove down to the Redburn, on a close muggy day, 

 near the end of the fishing season, taking with me both 

 rifle and rod, that, in case the one failed to afford 

 amusement, I might try my luck with the other. As I 

 had almost anticipated, there was no sport to be had on 

 the river : so after watching for a few minutes the 

 salmon which lazily plunged about a large pool, I 

 ordered my pony to be re-yoked, and started for home 

 by a road which runs for a considerable distance within 

 a few yards of the shore of a small arm of the sea. I 

 had not gone very far, when at the end of a low point 

 of land which juts a good distance out into the loch, 

 my eye detected the presence of something unusual. 

 Having left my trap, ordering the boy to drive home 

 if 1 did not shortly rejoin him, I crept down to get a 

 nearer view, and soon discovered two seals, lying on the 

 beach near the water's edge. By the help of sundry 

 fragments of rock, and the natural irregularities in the 



