To Mountain Tarn 



spreading fall the tail of Loch Skene becomes 

 the "Grey Mares Tail." 



After heavy rain it changes to the brown mare's 

 tail. Then, perhaps, it is at its best. Where it 

 lashes its liquid hairs into the stream beneath are 

 fish, small and many ; doubtless longing to ascend. 

 Such is the relation of tarn and tail stream. 



The northern vision is in Forfarshire, away up 

 one of the glens leading into the heart of the 

 Grampians. The sign is where a burn breaks 

 into the stream, just outside the picturesque ham- 

 let of Clova. The rest is but a following up the 

 mountain side. The tail presents no abrupt fall. 

 Nowhere as in the case of its southern sister 

 does it cling to almost sheer rock face, nor spread 

 out in the semblance of a grey, changing in times 

 of flood to a brown mare's tail. It simply tumbles 

 down the rude slope, in a boulder-bristling channel 

 which it has worn for itself, now ruffling into 

 white, now reined for a moment in a dark, fret- 

 ting pool. 



The burn mouth is an open door, for the life of 

 the South Esk ; as the sojourners on a highway 

 may turn into a lane. Beyond, is a possible, if a 

 stiff climb. No check is there, no absolute barrier. 

 A rush up the current, a rest in the pool, and so 

 on from stage to stage. I have fished there. It 

 is a boy's fishing area, compared with the maturer 

 waters, in which it loses itself. Bait and fly are 

 dropped, mainly, in the pools, and the triangular 



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