230 THUNDEK- STORM. 



now in the opposite extreme. We had not ascended 

 many hundred yards when I was arrested by what I 

 imagined to be the noise of an immense fragment of 

 rock rolling down the hill, but on looking round, though 

 the noise had almost equalled that of moderate thunder, 

 nothing was to be seen. I was completely puzzled to 

 account for this, but Gillespie, without at all seeming 

 to share in my amazement, at once suggested that we 

 had better hasten on. On -my inquiring the reasons for 

 this advice, he replied that there would shortly be a 

 tremendous storm, and that the noise I had just heard 

 was caused by the wind in the distance. I laughed at 

 him, as it was now a dead calm ; but before we had 

 reached the top of the pass a slight breeze sprang up ; 

 by the time we were fairly on the top it was blowing 

 " a single reef" breeze, and livid clouds were floating 

 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 me more than counterbalanced any such 

 petty annoyances ; and I shall ever look back to those 

 two clays and their incidents with pleasureable 

 emotions. 



I will now close this chapter by recounting the 

 deaths of two seals. 



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



