XXI 



THE TARN AND THE TAIL 

 STREAM 



f "^HE tarn is a mountain lake gathered 

 into a cup wrought out in the slope. 

 It is solitary, remote, wild sometimes 

 very wild with much of the weird, 

 unexpected, and startling. The scene is bare, 

 save for the dwarf birch, or some crawling willow. 

 Rude also to a degree. The scratch of the ice- 

 plough enters it, as though it had passed but 

 yesterday. The waste lies around. 



Of Scottish tarns, two one to the north, and 

 the other to the south always appear to my 

 mental vision. Dark Loch Skene is among the 

 uplands of Peeblesshire. It has all the features of 

 a tarn. It is bare of trees. Indescribable ; the 

 desolation must be felt. Nor have long ages 

 greatly softened the ruin. Vainly do a few club 

 mosses and fern clumps strive to hide ; or scarlet 

 sorrel, and the white-starred cushions of saxi- 

 frage to beautify. Quite a little flock of roches 

 moutonntes, in the attitude of eternal grazing, 

 approach the water edge. 



256 



