240 NON SINE FISTULA. 



immediately after a forced march, and when therefore 

 the whole person is heated, and the feet generally wet, 

 severe colds, and even more serious consequences may 

 follow, unless the sportsman enjoys a rare constitu- 

 tional hardiness, which renders him proof against such 

 evils attendant on his pursuit of pleasure ; but though 

 the chill which often creeps over the frame is not so 

 easily obviated, the monotony of this noonday watching 

 may be relieved by different resources, varying accord- 

 ing to the taste. A pipe can soothe the spirit 

 impatient of delay; and speculations as to the future 

 or reminiscences of the past may wile away the 

 time even pleasantly. On this occasion my attendant 

 related, for my amusement, several anecdotes drawn 

 from the hoard of his past experiences. One of them 

 I will give to my readers. 



In front of the position in which we lay, and just 

 across the deep glen lying beneath us, rose a large 

 lumpy tract of high land, extending some miles north 

 and south ; beyond which again, and on the other side 

 of a second glen running parallel with the former, 

 there towered up a congregation of very rugged and 

 precipitous mountain masses, attaining to a consider- 

 able elevation and entirely destitute of vegetation. 

 There the eagle had her eyrie, and the fox his den, 

 both equally secure from human intrusion. The fox- 

 hunter had once, in the heat of the chace, been tempted 

 to follow his hounds into this desolate and dangerous 

 region ; at a time too when it was more than usually 

 dangerous, being covered with a thick coating of 

 snow. 



Thoughtless of the perils about him, he surmounted 

 one difficulty after another, until at length the clamour- 

 ing pack brought him to a ridge of frozen snow, so 



