CHAPTEE VI. 



Severe Drought— The Drive by Coach from Fort- William to Kingussie— Breakfast at Moy — 

 Where did Scott find Dominie Sampson's " Pro-di-gi-ous I " ? — Professor Blaclcie's Poem 

 on Glencoe. 



That the people of Lochaber and the Western Isles should be rejoic- 

 ing in the advent of heavy rains [August 1869], and seriously glad 

 at the reappearance of clouds in the heavens and mists upon the 

 mountain tops, may seem odd enough to those who know anything 

 of our usual meteorological characteristics ; yet true it is, and of a 

 verity that so it is, for here, as elsewhere, the heat was for many 

 consecutive weeks intense, and the parching drought and fierce glare 

 of a summer's sun from a constantly unclouded sky well nigh un- 

 bearable by man or beast, whether in the sheltered valley, where 

 for days and days no breath of air shook the tiniest leaflet or 

 rufHed the surface of the sullen tarn, or on the upland moor, where, 

 if breath of air there was, it was hot and stifling as the breath of a 

 furnace. "Were it not for the occasional sea breezes, that some- 

 times of an evening swept over the almost pulseless deep, and 

 copious falls of blessed night-dews, we should have been badly ofi' 

 indeed. But, as matters have turned out, we have much reason to 

 be thankful, for if our crops are not quite so heavy as in average 

 years, they are at least of excellent quality, and being ripe sooner 

 than usual, we have a chance of getting them secured in a condition 

 that will add immensely to their value. So thorough and persistent 

 was the drought even with us, that springs failed that never before 

 were known to refuse their waters to the thirsty ; and water-courses 

 that heretofore, even in the driest years, still presented shady pools 



