90 TOUR IN SUTHERLAND. CH. VI. 



" inquired," as the whole talking was in Gaelic, and 

 therefore carried on by Dunbar. At last we met 

 with an old woman, who told him that there was a 

 loch some two miles off, which had always gone by 

 the name of the Loch of the Fishing Eagle ; her 

 Gaelic name for it being " Loch n' allan-yasker." 

 I probably write the Gaelic incorrectly, but that 

 was as near as I could make out what the name 

 sounded like ; Dunbar interpreted it to me as 

 meaning literally, the " Loch of the Eagle-fisher." 



Tiiis revived our spirits, and we set our shoulders 

 to the hill again with fresh confidence, and a steep, 

 rough hill it was. We struck into the country 

 in a north-west direction, keeping separate heights, 

 in order to have a better chance of finding the lake. 

 Having passed several lochs without observing the 

 object of our search, I began almost to despair, and 

 to think that we must have mistaken the whole 

 matter — the more so, as from the aspect of the rocks 

 and the feel of the air from the north, I was con- 

 fident that the ocean must be at no great distance 

 from us ; and, indeed, that it must be washing the 

 other side of the very next range of rocks to that on 

 which we were. There is a certain look and feel of 

 the atmosphere when approaching the sea, which is 

 quite unmistakeable. We had already walked an 

 hour and a-half straight north-west, thus making 



