28o WILD SPORTS OF THE HIGHLANDS chap. 



position. There was, however, something so very desolate and 

 wild in the scene and the day, that, wrapt in my plaid, I stalked 

 slowly on enjoying the whole thing as much as if the elements 

 had been in better temper, and the Goddess of Hunting pro- 

 pitious. 



We came in the afternoon to a rocky burn, along the course 

 of which was our line of march. To the left rose an intermi- 

 nable-looking mountain, over the sides of which were scattered a 

 wilderness of grey rock and stone, sometimes forming immense 

 precipices, and in other places degenerating into large tracts of 

 loose and water-worn grey shingle, apparently collected and 

 heaped together by the winter floods. Great masses of rock 

 were scattered about, resting on their angles, and looking as if 

 the wind, which was blowing a perfect gale, would hurl them 

 down on us. 



Amongst all this dreary waste of rock and stone, there were 

 large patches of bright green pasture and rushes on the level 

 spots formed by the damming up of the springs and mountain 

 streams 



Stretching away to our right was a great expanse of brown 

 heather and swampy ground, dotted with innumerable pools of 

 black-looking water. The horizon on every side was shut out 

 by the approaching masses of rain and drift. The clouds closed 

 round us, and the rain began to fall in straight hard torrents ; 

 at the same time, however, completely allaying the wind. 



" Well, well," said Donald, " I just dinna ken what to do." 

 Even I began to think that we might as well have remained at 

 home ; but, putting the best face on the matter, we got under 

 a projecting bank of the burn, and took out our provision of 

 oat-cake and cold grouse, and having demolished that, and 

 made a considerable vacuum in the whisky flask, I lit my 

 cigar, and meditated on the vanity of human pursuits in 

 general, and of deer-stalking in particular, while dreamy visions 

 of balls, operas, and the last pair of blue eyes that I had sworn 

 everlasting allegiance to, passed before me. 



Donald was engaged in the more useful employment of 

 bobbing for burn trout with a line and hook he had produced 

 out of his bonnet — that wonderful blue bonnet, which, like the 

 bag in the fairy tale, contains anything and everything which 

 is required at a moment's notice. His bait was the worms 



