106 TO THE DEEE FOREST. 



steep. As I looked, with a longing eye and parched 

 throat, at the many little springs and burns we passed, 

 gushing merrily and tunefully on their way, I fancied I 

 could almost realise to myself the feelings of the 

 traveller who, in crossing the deserts of Arabia, is lured 

 further and further from his way by the spectral river, 

 which either continues ever at the same distance, 

 receding as he advances, or melts into nothingness just 

 as he fondly thinks he is about to be refreshed. For 

 though here there was water enough and to spare, I had 

 learnt by unpleasant experience that in climbing among 

 the mountains it is the worst thing in the world to 

 gratify one's thirst by constantly taking a draught, 

 however small ; and the utmost I dare allow myself 

 was to moisten my lips, and occasionally to rinse out 

 my mouth. But to everything there is an end, and two 

 hours' hard climbing brought us to the brow of the hill. 

 Here we paused, to drink in eagerly the refreshing 

 breeze that crept up from the strath beyond, and 

 commencing the descent, three quarters of an hour's 

 tumbling and scrambling brought us to the cottage. 



Our load of provisions deposited, there being yet two 

 hours before sunset, we took out our telescopes, and 

 subjected the opposite side of the strath to a most 

 careful scrutiny, but in vain ; after running our eyes 

 up every ravine and gully, and slowly traversing each 

 open stretch of moorland, we each returned our glass 

 to its case, and proceeded to take a stroll along the 

 banks of the river which wound through the bottom 

 of the valley. 



'Twas a lovely evening, and as the sun sank to the 

 horizon, tipping the summits of the hills with gold, and 

 tingeing the cliffs around to a copper hue, here and 

 there, when a ray still shot down some gorge, the rocks 



