BEN NEVIS. 29 
from side to side as you approach Inverarnon, 
you came to a hill covered with firs, some standing, 
many fallen, and already ' barked.' A picturesque 
group of women in red petticoats and white 
jackets are seated by a picnic fire cooking ; these 
are the 'barkers,' who live in rough huts built 
about the wood during their season of work, and 
vividly remind one of the olive gatherers in the 
olive woods of Sardinia. 
From the head of Loch Lomond a coach con- 
veys you over the Black Mountain and through 
the awful pass of Glencoe to the hotel of Banavie 
at the foot of Ben Nevis, where I was assured 
I should undoubtedly find Polystichum lonchitis ; 
and up the mountain sides I tramped many a weary 
mile in the search, now scrambling up a rocky 
path, now floundering in a bog — but no lonchitis. 
Indeed, I may here own that I have never found 
one plant of this most interesting Fern. " Lon- 
chitidioides " I have found in plenty, and some 
bearing such close resemblance to lonchitis as 
for a time to create a doubt even in the mind of 
