70 POHPOISES ANECDOTE. 



As we drove along, the lapwing was wheeling round 

 in the air, and broke the stillness of the solitude by her 

 mournful note ; occasionally joined by the whistle of 

 the curlew, as he hurried to his feeding-ground on 

 some lone marsh. Presently our road brought us once 

 more to the shore of the frith, which stretched, smooth ' 

 as glass, far as the eye could distinguish in one 

 direction, being there belted by a thin streak of white, 

 the breakers of the ocean ; while in the opposite 

 direction it wound along for some miles, gradually 

 narrowing until it became lost among the hills in the 

 blue distance. 



Here and there might be seen a solitary heron 

 dreaming on one leg, while others were picking their 

 way over the shingle, or standing motionless, knee- 

 deep in water, as they watched for the fish that swain 

 heedlessly by, and in a moment were transported from 

 their proper element to the bowels of their greedy 

 devourers. 



Further out, the great northern diver, or other 

 smaller water-fowl, were dimpling the surface of the 

 frith, as they washed their plumage and disported 

 beneath the morning sun ; while now and then a heavy 

 splash marked the course of the salmon, who hugged 

 the shore on his way to the higher waters of some river. 

 I looked in vain for any signs of a seal. Though not 

 at all uncommon in this arm of the sea, indeed, much 

 more numerous than the fishermen would have them, 

 not a head of them was visible this morning. But 

 more than half-way across the water, two or three 

 porpoises were ploughing the deep, and following 

 doubtless the course of some shoal of herrings, in their 

 peculiar rolling fashion. 



I had an anecdote related to me lately by a High- 



