So Burn side. 



slowly and reluctantly I wend my way back to the hotel at 

 the head of the Loch, and join my friends at breakfast. 



Breakfast over, we start for a climb, our destination being 

 the cairn on the summit of Ben Donich. Passing the bridge 

 on which I stood this morning, and under which the gurgling 

 burn still noisily hurries, we bear to the right, our route 

 skirting the larch wood and then leading us through a 

 plantation of more mixed growth. Here a small party with 

 rod and reel attempts to lure the wary salmon to his doom, 

 but the bright August morning is evidently not propitious 

 for such sport. After this we pass under a narrow belt of 

 wood which skirts the base of Ben Donich, and enter it a 

 little farther up to explore its mysteries. Carpet moths in 

 numbers fly off the trunks of the trees as we push through 

 the underwood, but we do not see them until they are on the 

 wing. We stop and examine a tree. There is a patch ex- 

 actly the colour of the damp oak-trunk. A shadow falls on 

 it as we stretch forward, and in a moment the apparent 

 patch takes to flight and is gone. Now we know what to 

 look for. There is another patch just discernible on the 

 trunk. Even the wavy lines of the trunk are continued on 

 the patch. It is only a scar, you think. Move your hand 

 quickly near it. It's off, you see, directly. There is a paler 

 patch. With a little care you can see that that is a moth, 

 even while it rests on the oak trunk ; but it flies to yon 

 birch, and on its trunk becomes as invisible as were the 

 dark ones on the oak trunk. A little close observation soon 

 reveals to us that there are both pale and dark moths in this 

 wood, and that they are inconspicuous or the reverse, accord- 

 ing as they rest on the birch or oak trunks ; the pale ones 

 are inconspicuous on the birches, but conspicuous on the 



