A PLEA FOB THE WASTES. 5 



would not give the frowning crag or barren fell for all 

 the rich slopes and verdant valleys of the Lowlands. 



There are two kinds of wild scenery pre-eminently 

 deserving the epithet " sublime ; " but to feel their over- 

 powering effect, they must be seen with every associated 

 object. You cannot view the sea-cliff in perfection unless 

 there is nothing before you but the boundless, fathomless 

 ocean. An arm of the sea, or a firth, will not do ; their 

 waves are never those rolling, booming surges, which 

 impress one with the vastness from which they come. 

 There must also be the countless variety of sea-birds,* 

 some thickly studding every jagged projection, and others 

 riding the swelling billow, their bright plumage glancing 

 in the beams of the morning sun. My greater favourite, 

 however, is the wild and lonely mountain, with its crags, 

 its bare heath, its solitary moor-loch, and, above all, the 

 eyrie of the golden eagle, dread monarch of the mist. 

 Spring is the season to enjoy both in perfection, as all the 

 winged tenants have then taken possession of their tempo- 

 rary abodes. Every variety may be seen and studied; 

 while from their tameness a nearer view may be obtained 

 than at any other time. Few springs have passed without 

 my enjoying either a marine or mountain treat, sometimes 



* The white-tailed eagle, or erne, not unfrequently hatches on the 

 overhanging rocks of the sea, and by her gallant swoops and screams, 

 when her territory is invaded, adds much to the impression of wildness 

 and grandeur. As congenial a haunt for its nidification is the island 

 of a moor-loch, if there are any old trees to fix the eyrie upon, finding 

 its hunting-ground in the neighbouring morasses ; whence it has acquired 

 the name of the bog-eagle. 



