RANNOCH. 



Ivii 



south side on the Killiechassie and Cluny shootings, and once from 

 Tummel Lodge. I was pleased to hear that the old keeper, M'Beth, 

 was still alive and hale and hearty. Our driver knew all about the 

 countryside, as he had driven the mails to and from Eannoch for 

 twenty or more years. We passed Dunalastair, but the house cannot 

 be seen from the road. It was purchased by an old neighbour of 

 mine some years ago — Mr. Buntine, late Chairman of the Caledonian 

 Railway. A lovely place it is, hanging over the rapids of the 

 rushing river in the glen below, where the Tummel river gains 

 perhaps its greatest velocity at any point of its course. The new 

 mansion-house of Newton, close to the highroad, as we passed was 

 all lighted up by electric light obtained from a dynamo driven by 

 turbine from the level of the higher rapids. Schieliallion had his 

 cowl on, but doffed it to us for one brief period just as we passed 

 Dunalastair, and we saw his majesty towering up from the grouse- 

 moors which lie between his feet and the river. 



It was late at night when we drove up to the hospitable 

 Dunalastair Hotel. 



During our sojourn in Tay Rannoch contributed some inter- 

 esting work. Unable myself to scramble far or high, I armed 

 Mr. Norrie with the necessary instructions, obtained a local guide 

 who knew all the " ins and outs " of the hills, being as he is a 

 lad who accompanies the sportsmen in the season, on hill and 

 coverts; provided a trap to take them a part of the way, and 

 pointed out the snow-beleaguered northern slopes of Scoupa — or as 

 it is known in Glen Lyon, Meall Garve. " Forward ! Excelsior ! " 

 and they started upon a good five-mile climb. Four plates were 

 exposed — two whole, and two half-plates — of the snow-wreaths, and 

 the bulging screes below where the Snow-Buntings breed. The nest 

 was found in 1903 — the farthest south recorded locality, so far, in 

 Scotland. (The mapping out of the distribution of its nesting haunts 

 can now be very generally indicated for the whole of Scotland.) 



Mr. Norrie described the " screes " of Scoupa as limited in extent 

 as compared with many others we are acquainted with, as for in- 

 stance in Sutherlandshire or the West Highlands. Nor do the screes 

 of Scoupa lie below the snow-corries at a straight angle, but rather 

 appear to bulge outwards, more like a great " haunch " or shoulder. 

 The snow-slopes filling the concave corries however are, for the most 



