COHR AN DHU. 21 



very infancy to fatigue and hardship, accustomed to 

 climb the steepest hills as you or I, Header, might 

 walk the Strand come too of a hardy race, and him- 

 self naturally strong (for, as a Cumberland man once 

 observed, " t' weak uns all die ") a walk across the 

 hills, at a rate truly inconceivable by those who have 

 not witnessed it, is an almost daily occurrence. 



A most fatiguing march of three-quarters of an hour 

 brought us to the edge of a cliff, from whence we looked 

 down into the corrie (Gaelice, Cohr an Dhu, Anglice, 

 the black corrie). It was not yet light enough to 

 enabl$ us to distinguish anything beyond the general 

 features of the ground ; so we sat down, wrapped in 

 our plaids, and held a council of war. Beneath us lay 

 Cohr an Dhu, with Loch an Dhu sleeping in its centre. 

 Kunning round three sides of the loch was a broad 

 border of green turf, and from this border the sides of 

 the corrie rose, in some parts gradually, in others pre- 

 cipitously. To the right was a gradually- sloping 

 ascent leading to a pass, between two rocky summits, 

 called " Bealloch Mohr," or the large pass ; to the left, 

 a pass, or deer-track, winding up through places 

 apparently inaccessible, led to " Bealloch Beg," or the 

 little pass. The wind was blowing straight from Beal- 

 loch Mohr into the corrie, so that the deer would be 

 certain to wind us if we waited for them in that pass ; 

 whereas if we waited for them in Bealloch Beg, they 

 would not wind us till they had passed our hiding-place. 

 Eorie, however, was quite certain that the herd were 

 in the constant habit both of entering the corrie at 

 evening and leaving it in the morning by the unfavour- 

 able route Bealloch Mohr, and that if we waited the 

 whole day we should see nothing of them in Bealloch 

 Beg. We were thus thrown into a dilemma, whether 



