Wanderings of a Naturalist 



falls headlong in white spray — dazzling in a day of June 

 sunshine, dark and sullen after October storms. But it is 

 only during a part of the year that the Dee is seen ; after 

 November the waterfalls are held firm in the grip of frost 

 and snow, all save one small fall, which I have never seen 

 icebound. The name given to this corrie is Fuar Garbh 

 Choire, or the Cold Rough Corrie. I have often wondered 

 that this name should have been given to it, facing as it does 

 due south. If any corrie deserves this title it is the western 

 end of the Garbh Choire Mhor, where even in June the sun 

 shines only for a few hours and where the snow never 

 disappears. 



In the corrie plant life abounds, and that creeping alpine 

 plant Azalea procumbens carpets the gravelly slopes with 

 its small, richly-coloured flowers during long June days. I 

 once found it everywhere flowering in the early days of 

 October, though this is quite exceptional. Amongst the 

 granite boulders there grows the parsley fern, with delicate 

 curly fronds contrasting strikingly with the lichen-plastered 

 rocks. Other Alpine plants are in the corrie — Gnaphalium 

 supinum, more than one species of Carex, Silene acaulis, 

 Lycopodium selago, the Alpine variety of juniper, Saxifraga 

 stellaris, and many others. 



The tribe of the ptarmigan have their home in the corrie. 

 Often they may be seen on white, silent flying wings crossing 

 from one feeding ground to another. At times, flying for 

 their lives from the eagle and with a following wind, they 

 hurry, at a speed greater than an express train, over the high 

 tops, halting only when across on the Speyside ground. But 

 when the eagle has passed by, they return, skimming the hill- 

 sides and moving always in silence. 



During the autumn months the corrie hears from time to 

 time the sad whistle of the golden plover as these birds of 

 swift and clean-cut flight move across on their migration. 

 At times, too, the soft though far-carrying whistle of the hill 

 dotterel may be borne across on the breeze. The eagle is 



178 



