56 FEBRUARY 



objects are brought near, and near objects show up 

 so sharp and black in the surrounding pallor that 

 the view loses its breadth. But among mountains 

 the sense of size is increased. Hills seem higher 

 and valleys vaster under snow. The pass between 

 Dalwhinnie and Dalnaspidal, even as viewed from the 

 comfortable cushions of a railway carriage, presents a 

 scene during this great snowstorm of February 1895 

 not soon to be effaced from memory. Hardly a 

 rock is visible ; one unbroken sheet of white covers 

 the moorland foreground, wraps the frozen river, 

 and towers on the mountain domes to meet the 

 deep blue of the sky. 



Herds of red deer may be seen close to the 

 railway at various places. Hard pressed as these 

 have been for food for some weeks past, the hinds 

 still seem in fairly good condition, for the herbage 

 is still fresh under the snow, and deer can scrape 

 away the covering with their sharp hoofs. Still, it 

 takes a great deal of grass to fill the stomach of a 

 stag. Where they are beyond reach of hand-feed- 

 ing, the poor beasts must be feeling the effects of 

 short commons ; and it will go harder with them yet 

 in the long, laggard Highland spring, for it is late 

 before any life stirs in the wan hill herbage. We 



