Sunrise from Sgor an Lochan Uaine 



Garbh Choire presented a wonderful sight. The whole of 

 the corrie and the Lairig were filled with a soft billowy mist, 

 on which the sun shone with almost dazzling brilliance. 

 From this sea the upper reaches of Ben MacDhui emerged 

 and the top of Cairn Toul. Gradually, imperceptibly, despite 

 the power of the sun, the mists rose higher, and as we 

 watched, all ground below the 4,000-foot level was envel- 

 oped, though above us the sky was still of an unclouded 

 blue. South-west we saw, one by one, the tops of the high 

 hills disappear; Ben Lawers and Schiehallion for a time 

 kept their summits mist-free, but gradually were forced to 

 yield to the advancing vapours. Due west, however, the 

 cloud layer did not appear to reach beyond Ben Alder, and 

 across the intervening mists Ben Nevis towered, its height 

 seeming enormous from the clouds that lay low on hill and 

 glen between us and it. 



At length, shortly after ten, the mists, in their unrelent- 

 ing upward course, appeared on the plateau of Braeriach 

 itself. At first only in halting wisps did they venture thus 

 far, and the sun dispelled them easily. But ever denser 

 did they press forward, and more quickly too, so that the sun 

 battled in vain against the invading force, and soon the 

 plateau was shrouded in gloom and clammy vapours, through 

 which came from time to time the croaking of an unseen 

 ptarmigan, and the murmur of the rushing Dee in the Garbh 

 Choire far beneath. 



67 



