108 BENULA AND FARLEY, 1920 



and we could not see 5 yards ahead of us, and so, 

 of course, we had to crawl the first thirteen miles 

 down Glencannich, as the road is very narrow and 

 terribly tortuous and fairly steep, and the first 

 four miles is all along Loch Mullardoch with a 

 sheer drop into the loch of 40 or 50 feet most 

 unpleasant. However, we took two hours over it 

 and got down at long last, and I should think 

 Parker was thankful when he safely landed us on 

 the main Strathglass Road. I know all that was 

 left of the laird and lairdess was very thankful ! 

 It was past midnight when we got to Balblair, 

 and our wonderful day of sixteen hours was over. 

 Sally and I have had many thrilling adventures 

 together, but I think this 30th of August, which 

 was the 31st and her birthday before it was over, 

 will long be remembered by us as the Great 

 Adventure, not so much from a stalking point of 

 view as the wonderful day on Erchless before the 

 snow-storm, October, 1917, but rather from the 

 variety of its thrills, the arduousness of the ascent, 

 the wonderful sunshine on the tops above the 

 clouds, the disappointment of the first stalk, 

 the uncertainty of the wounded stag, the grand 

 climax of such a good stag so early in the season, 

 and the anticlimax of getting back to the lodge and 

 the drive home: all this makes it a day never to 

 be forgotten and pretty hard to beat. Whatever 

 Farley may bring forth, Benula has indeed produced 

 an intermezzo more wonderful than Mascagni's. 



