208 JOURNEY TO BORGAFIORD. 
of the capital than almost any where else, would 
permit us; stopping only to admire, and to gather 
specimens of, the elegant Saxifraga Hir cuius, 
which adorned, in the greatest profusion, the 
numerous springs of water that we met with 
near our road. It was in this journey, for the 
first time in my life, that I saw its beautiful 
yellow blossoms, and I thought I could never 
gather enough of the plant. In about three 
hours we overtook our luggage horses and guide: 
despising, however, a conductor in a tract of 
country, over which we had twice travelled be¬ 
fore, we hastened forward on our way, but had 
scarcely lost sight of our company than we saw 
reason to regret our precipitancy; for we found 
ourselves so encompassed by bogs, that we were 
at a loss how to proceed. In urging my. own 
horse through a swamp, he floundered and threw 
me, and I had great difficulty in extricating him 
from his unpleasant situation. Jacob, by a more 
circuitous route, reached me in safety, and we 
continued our journey till about ten o’clock, when 
we arrived at the foot of Skoul-a-fiel, and fixed 
upon a little verdant plain by the banks of a wide 
and extremely rapid torrent for the situation of our 
tents, which did not come up to us before twelve 
o’clock. At about half a mile from us was a 
peasant’s house, called, if I recollect right, Sky - 
keaster, to which I dispatched Jacob, according 
