CHAPTER XXXII 



SGORAN DUBH : AN AUTUMN SNOWFALL 



RISING precipitously from lonely Loch Einich, and 

 standing some dozen miles south-south-west from 

 Aviemore, is the wild and gloomy hill known as 

 Sgoran Dubh, or as it may be translated into English, "the 

 Black Rock." The most westerly of the Cairngorm range 

 of hills, it is at times mist-capped when its higher and more 

 eastern neighbours, Ben MacDhui and Cairngorm, are clear 

 to their tops, and even in June sunshine its precipices have a 

 certain grimness. In early summer when snowfields still 

 linger near the summit, the emerald green of the young 

 grasses and blaeberry plants contrast pleasantly with these 

 snows and with the blackness of the rocks, and the result 

 is a blending of colours to delight the eye. Then again, 

 in October, when the grasses become brown and the blae- 

 berry plants turn to rich colours, the hill still shows this 

 harmony of tints. 



But one autumn, winter came far ahead of her time. 

 Even in September snow lay deep on Sgoran Dubh, 

 and big drifts were piled up in every sheltered hollow. 

 And then before October was many days old a second 

 and more severe snowstorm swept the hill. For close 

 on a week the temperature continued below freezing point, 

 and a strong and bitter wind brought with it powdery 

 snow. Not only on the hill did the snow fall. Even 

 the glen was buried for days beneath a mantle of white, 

 and thus I found it when, shortly after mid-October, I paid 

 a visit to the hill. After several days of snow and storm the 

 morning opened with blue sky and little wind, and although 



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