10 CORRACH-BAH ' OR, 



ing before his door, consoling himself for his early start 

 by a pipe of very strong tobacco. The morning was 

 all we could wish, calm, grey, and mild. As we passed 

 the banks of the loch, roe-deer were quietly cropping the 

 greensward which sloped to the water's edge, and now and 

 then a fine buck would raise his head and look listlessly 

 over his shoulder, as if wondering what business we had to 

 be so soon astir. The black-cock, surrounded by his hens, 

 was crooning his antics on the tops of the knolls, and was 

 answered by the red-cock with many a cheery but eccentric 

 call, from the more distant heights. A male hen-harrier 

 was flitting stealthily above the heather, seeking his break- 

 fast where it would be easily found, with small chance of 

 human company at his morning meal. Now and then an 

 Alpine hare would canter lazily away, or raise herself upon 

 her hind legs to listen, moving about her inquisitive ears. 



For some miles we walked along the road which inter- 

 sects the lower end of the forest, when Peter suddenly 

 turned into its gloomy depths. Small flocks of deer now 

 crossed us frequently, and sometimes a large herd would 

 saunter past at a slow walk. Occasionally we saw their 

 profiles on the crests of the mountains, or at feed, dotted 

 along some distant correi, in appearance no bigger than 

 roes. 



Peter had been entertaining me with many a hunting 

 anecdote, or with the natural history of some of the wild 

 denizens of the forest, when the first streak of the rising 

 sun struck the gaunt head of a bald cliff in the centre 

 of the mountains of Corrach-Bah. " Now, sir, " suiting 



