A PLEA FOR THE WASTES. 7 



bour. They sometimes, however, had a battle in the 

 air ; but the looser form, the heavier movement, and the 

 less daring spirit of the erne, made her no match for 

 the mountaineer, who soon drove her screaming to her 

 island. 



In the distance may be discerned the dark forms of 

 mountains belonging to that range called Corrach-Bah, 

 a very favourite resort of the golden eagle. The correis 

 which intersect them afford the richest pasture for the 

 deer ; and the hill-fox, the wild-cat, and the marten are 

 not yet banished from those desolate precipices. It is 

 not to be inferred, however, that the deer-forest is also 

 a preserve for vermin. There is many a splendid hunt 

 after the marten or the fox, which taxes the mettle both of 

 men and dogs. And although there often are only the 

 hounds and their quarry upon the bare mountains, and 

 the echoes of the rocks to cheer them on, yet, to a lover of 

 the pure picturesque, it is worth a hundred Lowland fox- 

 hunts, with their red coats, horns, huntsmen, whippers, 

 and all ! Nor are the eagles allowed to increase beyond 

 a certain limit, as each pair consumes no inconsiderable 

 number of red-deer calves as well as other game. But 

 Lord Breadalbane has too much of the Highland heart to 

 grudge this, or to wish, like some other proprietors, to 

 extirpate our truly national bird. 



It was towards the end of April 1845 that, armed 

 with my duck-gun to storm one of these eagle-fortresses, 

 I sailed in the Loch Goil steamboat, on my way to these 

 favourite haunts. I had also put up two trolling-rods in 



