XXXIV 



DESCRIPTIVE CHAPTERS, 



strata of that sun-shot haze, the still richer and more fertile plains 

 of wide Strathmore peeped out here and there. 



Now and then, and here and there, we caught the gleams of small 

 sheets of water ; but the distances were rendered too indistinct, and 

 we could not distinguish the further boundaries of the plain, nor 

 make out the still further range of the Sidlaw Hills, which bound 

 the southern verge of Strathmore. Only in one direction was the 

 dim and ghostly outline of a great mountain seen, which — rightly or 

 wrongly at the time — we took to be Ben Vrachie, but which from a 

 study of the map and later-acquired knowledge of the outline, I now 

 believe to have been Ben-y-Gloe, viewed past the nearer shoulder of 

 Ben Tuilachan — itself a monster in proportions ; and a little more 

 to the right and to the south of west what now appears to have 

 been Garn an Eigh was silhouetted on the fog-bank. 



We sampled the Loch nan Eun trout both as to sporting abilities 

 and their quality on the breakfast table, and pronounced them " good." 

 And then we bade a long farewell to our temporary sheiling which 

 had sheltered us during the cold damp night and morning. We 

 fished down the Tatnach Glen for a mile or two, catching great 

 store of small but active and sporting trout; and then walked 

 briskly onward upon our backward track past Finnigand Farm, and 

 so on to our quarters at Mount Blair, where for ten days we spent 

 our time upon the well-stocked moors of Blair and Dalnaglar. But 

 of all my time there, the memory of lone Loch nan Eun bears off the 

 palm of memory of Glenshee. 



Many another mountain-top of the Eastern Grampians can yield 

 as good and better views of the great Strathmore, but I hope I have 

 succeeded in conveying some idea of its extent and beauty, even 

 from our imperfect opportunity. Ten days later I was rattling 

 down the steep road over the shoulder of Ben Yrachie to catch the 

 train at Pitlochry for still further north, to still remoter solitudes of 

 the north-west Highlands and Sutherlandshire. 



Keen memories were behind me, and perhaps still keener 

 memories shadowed forth what lay before me of my favourite 

 Scottish county. 



