242 THE KETURN OF THE EAGLES 



eyes from the purple heather brae whereon the lighthouse 

 stands to peer into the green depths where the lost secret 

 lies; but no man, sage or simple, has yet hit upon the 

 right recipe. 



LVII 



In the mountain region constituting the great southern 

 Tie Return u P^ an( ^ ^ Scotland, extending from upper 

 of the Nithsdale to the valley of the Cree and to 

 Bagles Dalmellington, eagles once abounded in incon- 

 venient numbers. In a description of the parish of 

 Minigaff, preserved in the Advocates' Library among 

 the Macfarlane MSS., which were compiled in the 

 eighteenth century, the following note appears about 

 the Merrick, which is the highest Scottish hill south 

 of Clyde and Forth, attaining the respectable altitude 

 of 2750 feet : ' In the remote parts of this great mountain 

 are very large Red deer ; and about the top thereof that 

 fine bird called the Mountain Partridge, or, by the 

 commonalty, the Tarmachan, about the size of a Red 

 cock, and in flesh much of the same nature; feeds, as 

 that bird doth, on the seeds of the bullrush, and makes 

 its protection in the chinks and hollow places of thick 

 stones, from the insults of the eagles, which are in 

 plenty, both the large gray and the black, about that 

 mountain.' 



A year ago it might have been written with truth that 

 red deer, ptarmigan, and eagles were all extinct, leaving 

 only their memories embalmed in place-names. Thus in 

 Craignelder and Kilhilt may be recognised creag-nan-eilte 

 and coill eilte, the crag and wood of the hinds; in 

 Craigenholly, creag an choiUeaich, the crag of the grouse- 



