PHYSICAL FEATURES. 



65 



especially that on wiiicli we are standing, with coarse grass — at 

 this time of year, the middle of May, only just beginning to show 

 a little green at the roots. Below, at our feet, runs the Doe, its 

 banks dotted with scattered birch and a rare Scots fir: beyond, 

 the dark corries, in one of which, nearly opposite us, the Golden 

 Eagle builds, and is, fortunately, preserved ; above, to our right, 

 is some good Ptarmigan ground: immediately below us are 

 some rocks in which the Peregrine and Raven build — not very 

 amicably, judging from the shrill noisy chatter of the former as 

 they stoop down on one of the Eavens, who turns on his back and 

 utters a hoarse croak each time the falcons near him. Below 

 these rocks is an extensive cairn, which generally holds a fox, 

 though none are apparent to-day. As we sit quietly waiting to 

 see if the keeper can put a fox out of the cairn for us, a young 

 stag suddenly appears, and after eyeing suspiciously the two very 

 still figures for a minute or two, begins to feed not more than five 

 or six yards away, every now and then quickly lifting his head, 

 as suspicious deer will do, to see if the two objects are dangerous 

 or not. Thanks to the invisibility of our clothes, and our quiet, 

 he is convinced there is nothing to fear, and feeds quietly out of 

 sight. A number of deer running along below the cairn warns 

 us (Duncan Maclennan ^ the Guisachan stalker, and ourselves) that 

 the other keeper is coming through the cairn, and shortly after he 

 joins us, and we sit down to our lunch. From where we are 

 resting, the country below us to the left appears to be one great flat, 

 a dreary yellowish-brown expanse, dotted with here and there a 

 small loch and innumerable bru-lochans. Lower down the burn 

 the trees get more numerous, and among them, where the Clunie 

 river joins the Doe, can be seen the lodge of Ceanacroc, to which 

 a bridle-path has been made from Guisachan, and along which we 

 came for most of the distance to our present position. 



Just above Ceanacroc the waters of the Clunie and the Loyne 

 unite, and at Ceanacroc the Doe adds its volume, thus making the 

 Moriston river. Shortly after passing Ceanacroc the banks of the 

 river are well wooded for some considerable distance on either 



^ Duncan Maclennan, for a long time head-stalker to the late Lord Tweed- 

 mouth, and still living at Guisachan. 



