Wanderings of a Naturalist 



parent that beyond it the sun could be seen shining on the 

 great expanse of unbroken snow. 



From the bothy a stiff climb brings the hillman to Coire 

 Odhar — a sheltered corrie much-frequented by ptarmigan in 

 winter, and to the ridge above. A herd of some fifteen stags 

 were feeding in the snow just to the north of Coire Odhar, 

 and many footprints of ptarmigan crossed and re-crossed the 

 frozen surface. These footprints led, as a rule, to some wind- 

 swept patch, where one could see that the young shoots of 

 ling, blaeberry, and crbwberry had been nipped off by the 

 white grouse. A little farther on a pair of these birds, in 

 almost complete winter plumage, flew across the corrie, the 

 cock croaking as he alighted, with tail upraised, on the snow 

 at the farther side. 



Small footprints in the snow showed where snow bunt- 

 ings had been feeding on the seeds of some of the taller hill 

 grasses which appeared through the snowy covering, and near 

 at hand were the tracks of a fox-cub and the smaller footprints 

 of a stoat. The going was very stiff, for the snow was both 

 deep and soft, with just sufficient of a crust to make each step 

 tiring in the extreme, the surface of the snow half-bearing 

 our weight and then "giving " at the critical moment. 



The Cxjire Odhar burn was snow-covered almost through- 

 out its length, and near the ridge at the top of the corrie 

 was a sheet of nearly solid ice, the waters of the infant burn 

 having insufficient warmth to flow through the icy expanse 

 and being continually frozen to the ice sheet. 



On Cairn Toul the mist gradually lifted, and at length 

 the hill was clear to the summit, with the feeble winter sun 

 shining on its cone-like apex. 



The ridge at the source of the Coire Odhar burn is about 

 3,000 feet above sea-level, and from here to the summit of 

 Cairn Toul is a gradual rise. We had hoped that on the 

 highest grounds the snow would have borne us, but even 

 here it was soft, so that each step was a struggle. 



Following the ridge, and making very slow progress, 



194 



