BIRD LIFE, ETC. 145 



ing obtained no refreshment for eighteen hours, except- 

 ing two mouthfuls of cold water ; so that even the 

 multitudes of grouse that sprung up around me ceased 

 to give much pleasure, although I had never before 

 started so many, even with a dog, in a space of equal 

 extent. At one o'clock, however, I came to a hut, 

 tenanted by a person named MacHardy, who, express- 

 ing his concern at my having been out all night, 

 treated me to a glass of whisky and some bread and 

 milk. At this place, Dubrach, stood three half-blasted 

 firs, and about a mile and a half farther down I came 

 upon a wood, the first that I had seen since I left 

 Blair. The silver Dee now rolled pleasantly along the 

 wooded valley, and in the evening I reached Castleton 

 of Braemar, where, while seated in the inn, at a little 

 round table, reading Zimmerman on Solitude, which, to 

 my great joy, I had found there, and sipping my tea, 

 I heard a rap at the door. " Come in," said I ; it was 

 my best friend, with whom I spent a happy evening, 

 in which, I believe, little mention was made of 

 ptarmigans, grey or brown. British Birds, vol. i. 

 pp. 175-179. 



2. MOUNTAIN INSPIRATION. 



It is delightful to wander far away from the haunts 

 and even the solitary huts of men, and, ascending the 

 steep mountain, seat one's self on the ruinous cairn that 

 crowns its summit, where, amid the grey stones, the 

 ptarmigan gleans its Alpine food. There, communing 



i, 



