From Fox's Earth 



of the wall was a pile of bleached sticks, which, 

 two years before St. John's visit, had been an 

 osprey's nest. In the absence of the truncated 

 rocks of other lakes, this is as near an approach 

 as could be made. Nor is it an isolated instance. 



The centre of interest was removed further 

 south, to a singularly wild and picturesque little 

 loch in Strathspey. An island bears a ruined 

 castle. As at Assynt, on the high part of the 

 crumbling wall, the osprey built. From the 

 shore the nest could be seen. Season after sea- 

 son the female sat there. The diving of the male, 

 and the bringing of his catch to the nest were 

 interesting dramas in a charming environment, at 

 once so quiet and so remote. How long the 

 tenure lasted were hard to fix with any certainty. 

 A tradition, of which the natives are not a little 

 proud, enables us to carry it pretty far back. 



Ronaleyn Gordon Gumming, of lion-hunting 

 fame, once swam across, breaking the ice by the 

 way ; and, with nothing more serious than the loss 

 of a little blood, brought the eggs ashore. This 

 mild adventure and instance of pluck and endur- 

 ance are interesting in the story of one who was 

 to do so much more stirring deeds. He died in 

 1866. And as this bears the mark of youthful 

 adventure, more than likely the ospreys of 

 Aviemore were contemporaneous with those of 

 Sutherlandshire. It must have been a late frost 

 that sealed the lochs so far on in spring, and a 



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