174 EXTRACTS FROM HIS WORKS [ch. vn. 
the dreary flats of Lewis, covered with lakes and 
flanked with the Park and Uig mountains. Having 
gazed upon the splendid scene until nearly frozen, 
I descended with considerable difficulty into a deep 
valley, w T here I encountered a fall of snow so dense 
as to render me apprehensive of being smothered 
by it. I felt too, for the first time perhaps, the 
benumbing effects of cold, my feet and fingers 
having become almost senseless, and a feeling of 
faintness having crept over me. However, by 
walking and running I soon recovered heat enough, 
and after passing the deep glen of Langadale, 
ascended an eminence in a kind of pass between 
two mountains, whence I discovered tokens of 
cultivation at the distance of three or four miles.— 
British Birds , vol. i., pp. 306, 307. 
8.—Crossbills Feeding 
In the autumn of 1821, when walking from 
Aberdeen to Elgin, by the way of Glenlivet and 
along the Spey, I had the pleasure of observing, 
near the influx of a tributary of that river, a flock 
of several hundreds of crossbills busily engaged in 
shelling the seeds of the berries which hung in 
clusters on a clump of rowan trees. So intent 
were they on satisfying their hunger that they 
seemed not to take the least heed of me, and as I 
had not a gun, I was content with gazing on them, 
