142 WILD SPOUTS OF THE HIGHLANDS chap. 



not above a hundred and fifty yards out at sea, watching us 

 with great attention, but would not come within sure range of 

 niy rifle. As we returned homewards, the pigeons were in great 

 numbers flying into the caves to feed their young. A pair of 

 peregrine falcons also passed along, on their way to a rock 

 where they breed, farther eastwards than we had been. 



We saw. too a flock of goats winding along the most inac- 

 cessible-looking parts of the cliff; and now and then the old 

 patriarchal-looking leader would stop to peer at us as we passed 

 below him, and when he saw that we had no hostile intention 

 towards his flock, he led them on again, stopping here and there 

 to nibble at the scanty herbage that was to be found in the 

 clefts of the rocks. In one place where we landed, my dog 

 started an old goat and a pair of kids, who dashed immediately 

 at what appeared to be a perpendicular face of rock, but on 

 which they contrived to keep their footing in a way that quite 

 puzzled me. The old goat at one time alighted on a point of 

 the rock where she had to stand with her four feet on a spot 

 not bigger than my hand, where she stood for a minute or 

 two seemingly quite at a loss which way to go, till her eye 

 caught some (to me invisible) projections of the stone, up which 

 she bounded, looking anxiously at her young, who, however, 

 seemed quite capable of following her footsteps wherever she 

 chose to lead them. We caught sight also of a badger, as he 

 scuffled along a shelf of rock and hurried into his hole. 



As the evening advanced, the cormorants kept coming in 

 to their roosting-places in great numbers, and I shot several of 

 them. We saw a good many seals as we approached the stake- 

 nets near the ferry, but did not get any shots at them ; and at 

 one place two otters were playing about in the water hear the 

 rocks, but they also took good care to disappear before we came 

 within reach of them ; and as I wished to get back to Cromarty 

 before it was late, I would not stop to wait for their reappearance. 

 I was much pleased on the whole with my day's excursion — the 

 beautiful scenery of the rocks, with the harbour of Cromarty, 

 and the distant hills of Ross-shire and Inverness-shire, forming 

 altogether as magnificent and varied a view as I have ever seen. 



On an excursion along these same rocks I was once nearly 

 drowned. I had just killed a pigeon that had dropped in the 

 water in a recess between the rocks. We rowed in after it 



