20 TOUR IN SUTHERLAND. CH. II. 



cliff, round which I have generally seen one or two 

 golden eagles soaring with strong and majestic flight. 

 At Loch Assynt, on a peninsula (once an island, 

 and now occasionally so), there are the ruins of an 

 old castle. On the summit of the highest part of 

 the wall is an immense pile of weather-beaten and 

 bleached sticks, which two years ago formed an 

 osprey's nest, but, unluckily, this most interesting 

 bird has been killed or driven from its picturesque 

 and exposed dwelling-place. Nothing could be 

 more characteristic of the bird than this nest, 

 perched on the highest corner of the ruin, over- 

 hanging the broad lake, which abounds with trout 

 of all sizes. The Salmo ferox, or great lake trout, 

 is more plentiful in Loch Assynt than in most High- 

 land lakes. A short distance above the inn at 

 Inchnadamph a spring rises from the limestone rocks 

 which it is worth travelling from London to see. 

 Direct from the ground bubbles up this spring with 

 such power and abundance that it at once forms a 

 goodly-sized brook of the most pure and transparent 

 water that can be imagined. The smallest trout or 

 the smallest pebbles are seen as clearly in its deepest 

 pools as if no water intervened. So bright and clear 

 are the streams flowing out of limestone, that they 

 have rather the effect that a good glass has on a 

 picture than that of making objects indistinct. 



