6 CORRACH-BAH ; OR, 



both, and the pleasure has then been heightened by 

 contrast. A slight sketch of one of these later excur- 

 sions may be admissible here. 



In the recesses of the Black-Mount Forest, very con- 

 siderably above the level of the sea, there is a muirland 

 lochan, about a mile long by half a mile broad, called in 

 Gaelic, Lochan Nahachalach; and a little to the east, 

 connected by a rocky brook, is Loch Bah, (the Drowning 

 Loch,) about three miles long by a mile broad. The 

 shores of these lochs, if shores they may be called, which 

 consist of an occasional strip of yellow sand, are seldom 

 trodden by any foot but that of the wild deer or the 

 otter. Jagged points of rock continually obtrude them- 

 selves above the blue-grey water, and the eyrie of the 

 sea-eagle fixed upon the top of an old birch, on a rugged 

 heathery islet of Loch Bah, while another eyrie graces 

 an aged Scotch fir of Loch Nahachalach, complete a 

 picture so exquisitely savage, that fancy in its wildest 

 mood could scarcely alter or amend. On the south these 

 lochs are bounded by an extensive morass, full of small 

 tarns, intersected by a pretty large muir-burn ; and on 

 the east of Loch Nahachalach a steep craggy hill rises 

 abruptly from its side. An eyrie of the golden eagle is 

 placed on a shelf of rock half-way up, and I have enjoyed 

 the rare luxury of seeing both eyries at the same moment, 

 and both queens in undisturbed possession of their thrones. 

 Seldom any collision took place, each having her favourite 

 hunting-ground. There was the mountain for the nobler 

 bird, and the morass for her more vulture-shaped neigh- 



