A SPRING WEEK IN THE WEST HIGHLANDS. 369 



whole way, and by a little observation, one can scarcely 

 fail to catch a passing glance at many of the creatures 

 that frequent these lonely wilds. An alpine hare, now 

 of a mottled blue and gray, scuttled along the road before 

 us for a considerable distance. She fortunately did not 

 cross it that would have been a clincher to the cuckoo ! 

 A roebuck was browsing upon the shoots of the birch and 

 hazel-bushes that fringe the river, not fifty yards off. He 

 only stared at the carriage and " dandered " up the oppo- 

 site hill. And now the dark outline of Bendora rose 

 before us, whose slate-coloured crags add greatly both to 

 the gloom and grandeur of the forest. 



Arrived at Inveroran, there was the characteristic sight 

 of a fine herd of the mountain deer, greedily feeding a 

 little below the crest of the near hill, upon the young 

 sweet grass which had sprung up from a long stretch of 

 burnt heather. The telescope was soon brought to bear 

 upon them, and some fine harts singled out. By the time 

 we had dined, they had fed down to the adjacent knolls. 



At break of day the landlord's son and tax-cart were at 

 the door of the inn to convey us part of the way to Loch 

 Bah. Peter Robertson was all ready to jump in, when we 

 passed the handsome new forest-lodge where he has taken 

 up his abode. We halted our cart at the nearest point 

 to the loch, and cut across on foot through the heathery 

 morass. A few redshanks, like well-set-up sentries, were 

 stalking upon the mossy banks at the water's edge, and a 

 stray one occasionally took a short flight from one little 

 tarn to another, piping its desert cry, while numbers of 



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