LIFE AT ROSEHALL. 33 



having got through the whole cover, I sat myself down on the 

 top of what was called the Eagle's Craig, and turned, for the 

 first time that morning, to the east to look at the sun, which was 

 now rising in its utmost glory and brightness a glorious sight, 

 and one that loses not its' interest though seen each returning day, 

 particularly when viewed from the lonely places either of land or 

 sea. Below me lay a great extent of pine-wood, concealing the 

 house and the cultivated land around it, with the exception of a 

 glimpse caught here and there of the bright green meadow which 

 formed the banks of the river. The river itself was visible 

 through many openings, and where the outline of the trees was 

 lower than in other places. Beyond the river rose a black moor- 

 land, which, growing gradually higher and higher, terminated in 

 mountains with a most varied and fantastic outline of peaks and 

 precipices, the stony sides of which were lighted up by the rising 

 sun, and exhibited a strong contrast to the deep colour of the 

 hills below them, covered with dark heather, and not yet reached 

 by the sun's rays. 



On the other side the ground was of quite a different 

 character. Immediately on leaving the wood the country for 

 some distance had a dreary, cold look, being covered not with 

 heather, but with a kind of gray grass, called there deer's grass, 

 which grows only in cold swampy ground. Here and there this 

 was varied by ranges of gray stone and rock, and dotted with 

 numerous lochs. In the distance to the west I could see the 

 upper part of a favourite rocky corrie, the sun shining brightly 

 on its gray rocks. A little to my right the fir- woods terminated, 

 but on that side, between me and the river, of which every bend 

 and reach was there in full view, were numerous little hillocks 

 overgrown with birch trees, old and rugged. Here and there, 

 amongst these hillocks, rose a great round gray rock, and the 

 whole of this rough ground was intersected with bright green 

 glades. Some three miles up the river a blue line of smoke 

 ascended perpendicularly in the still morning, the chimney it 

 came from being concealed by a group of birch- trees. 



I looked carefully with my glass at all the nooks and grassy 



c 



