1 BLACK CROW. 
burn, a few yards below the spot where it emerged from the steepest part of the gorge, and, accepting as a 
hoax my repeated warnings that within the next hundred yards he might find the remains of at least half a 
dozen defunct sheep, he totally disregarded the advice that a wee drop of the cratur might help to qualify the 
possible impurities, and, hastily snatching a cuacli* from the hands of one of the gillies, he emptied it again 
and again. I shall never forget his look of hopeless dismay (or the doses of whiskey needed to bring about 
his recovery) when, mounting a few steps further up the hill-side, lie looked down and became aware of the 
revolting spectacle in the pool, immediately above the spot where he had quenched his thirst. A dead ewe 
almost blocked up the course of the water (now low from continued drought) ; and the tiny streamlet that 
bubbled slowly along meandered peacefully through the decaying carcass, and found a vent near the chest, 
where the bones were split asunder from the force of the fall or the effects of decomposition. 
* A wooden drinking-cup ; pronounced “ quay.” 
