XX r THE RIVER FINDHORN 209 



in which the birds sang right merrily. As we descended the 

 river we passed the plantations at Dalmigarie and considerable 

 tracts of corn-ground — the corn in this high country being still 

 perfectly green. Here and there was a small farm-house on a 

 green mound, with a peat-stack larger than the house itself 

 As we passed these, a bare-headed and bare-legged urchin 

 would look at us round a corner of the building, and then 

 running in, would bring out the rest of the household to stare 

 at us. If we entered one of the houses, we were always 

 greeted with hospitable smiles, and the goodwife, wiping a 

 chair with her apron, would produce a bowl of excellent milk 

 (such milk as you only can get in the Highlands) and a plate 

 of cheese and oat-cake, the latter apparently consisting of 

 chopped straw, and seasoned with gravel, though made palatable 

 by the kind welcome with which it was given. Frequently, too, 

 a bottle of whisky would be produced, and a glass of it urged 

 on us, or we were pressed to stop to take an egg or something 

 warm. At Freeburn we parted — my friend to go by coach to 

 Inverness, and I to keep my course down the river, which is 

 surrounded by dreary grey hills. As I got on, however, the 

 banks grew more rocky and picturesque, enlivened here and 

 there by the usual green patches of corn, and the small farm- 

 houses, with their large peat-stack but diminutive corn-stack. 

 Near Freeburn I talked to an old Highlander, who was flogging 

 the water with a primitive-looking rod and line and a coarse- 

 looking fly, catching, however, a goodly number of trout. He 

 was the first angler I had as yet passed, with the exception of 

 a kilted boy, belonging to the shepherd at our place of rest, who 

 was already out when we left home, catching trout for his own 

 breakfast and that of a young peregrine falcon which he had 

 caught in the rocks opposite the house, and was keeping wholly 

 on a fish diet — and a more beautiful and finer bird I never saw, 

 although she had fed for many weeks on nothing but small 

 trout, a food not so congenial to her as rabbits and pigeons and 

 the other products of the low country. I bought the hawk of 

 him, and have kept her ever since. Below Freeburn I had to 

 wade the river, in order to avoid a very difificult and somewhat 

 dangerous pass on the rocks. Frequently I met with fresh 

 tracks of the otter. In some places, where the water fell over 

 rocks of any height, so as to prevent the animal from keeping 



