e sign of it, save the smoke, for a long time,
she having no fuel but green wood, and no bellows but her breath. My
eyes smarted exceedingly, but the woman seemed so kind and cheerful that
I was willing to endure it for the sake of warming my feet in the ashes
and talking to her. The fire was in the middle of the room, a crook
being suspended from a cross-beam, and a hole left at the top for the
smoke to find its way out by: it was a rude Highland hut, unadulterated
by Lowland fashions, but it had not the elegant shape of the ferry-house
at Loch Ketterine, and the fire, being in the middle of the room, could
not be such a snug place to draw to on a winter's night.

We had a long afternoon before us, with only eight miles to travel to
Dalmally, and, having been told that a ferry-boat was kept at one of the
islands, we resolved to call for it, and row to the island, so we went to
the top of an eminence, and the man who was with us set some children to
work to gather sticks and withered leaves to make a smoky fire--a signal
for the boatman, whose hut is on a flat green island, like a sheep
pasture, without trees, and of a considerable size: the man told us it
was a rabbit-warren. There were other small islands, on one of which was
a ruined house, fortification, or small castle: we could not learn
anything of its history, only a girl told us that formerly gentlemen
lived in such places. Immediately from the water's edge rose the
mountain Cruachan on the opposite side of the lake; it is woody near the
water and craggy above, with deep hollows on the surface. We thought it
the grandest mountain we had seen, and on saying to the man who was with
us that it was a fine mountain, 'Yes,' he replied, 'it is an excellent
mountain,' adding that it was higher than Ben Lomond, and then told us
some wild stories of the enormous profits it brought to Lord Breadalbane,
its lawful owner. The shape of Loch Awe is very remarkable, its outlet
being at one side, and only about eight miles from the head, and the
whole lake twenty-four miles in length. We looked with longing after
that branch of it opposite to us out of which the water issues: it seemed
almost like a river gliding under steep precipices. What we saw of the
larger branch, or what might be called the body of the lake, was less
promising, the banks being merely gentle slopes, with not very high
mountains behind, and the ground moorish and cold.

The children, after having c