26 NATURE IN ENGLAND. 



were abundant, wild flowers few, grass universal. A 

 loping hare started up before me ; a pair of ringed 

 ousels took a hasty glance at me from behind a rock ; 

 sheep and lambs, the latter white and conspicuous 

 beside their dingy and all but invisible dams, were 

 scattered here and there; the wheat-ear uncovered 

 its white rump as it flitted from rock to rock, and the 

 mountain pipit displayed its larklike tail. No sound 

 of wind in the trees ; there were no trees, no seared 

 branches and trunks that so enhance and set off 

 the wildness of our mountain-tops. On the summit 

 the wind whistled around the outcropping rocks and 

 hummed among the heather, but the great moun- 

 tain did not purr or roar like one covered with for- 

 ests. 



I lingered for an hour or more, and gazed upon 

 the stretch of mountain and vale about me. The 

 summit of Ben Lomond, eight or ten miles to the 

 west, rose a few hundred feet above me. On four 

 peaks I could see snow or miniature glaciers. Only 

 four or five houses, mostly humble shepherd dwell- 

 ings, were visible in that wide circuit. The sun 

 shone out at intervals ; the driving clouds floated 

 low, their keels scraping the rocks of some of the 

 higher summits. The atmosphere was filled with a 

 curious white film, like water tinged with milk, an 

 effect only produced at home by a fine mist. " A 

 certain tameness in the view, after all," I recorded in 

 my note-book on the spot, " perhaps because of the 

 trim and grassy character of the mountain ; not sol 



