there was a dark bank of cloud
lying in the west upon Beann-Drineachain, but all the sky above was blue
and clear, and the water moderate, as I crossed into the forest. I
merely wanted a buck, and, therefore, only made a short circuit to the
edge of Dun-Fhearn, and rolled a stone down the steep into the deep,
wooded den. As it plunged into the burn below, I heard the bound of feet
coming up; but they were only two small does, and I did not 'speak' to
them, but amused myself with watching their uneasiness and surprise as
they perked into the bosky gorge, down which the stone had crashed like
a nine-pounder; and, as their white targets jinked over the brae, I went
on to try the western terraces.

[Illustration]

There is a smooth dry brae opposite to Logie Cumming, called 'Braigh
Choilich-Choille,'[3] great part of the slope of which is covered with a
growth of brackens from five to six feet high, mixed with large masses
of foxgloves, of such luxuriance that the stems sometimes rise five from
a single root, and more than seven feet in height, of which there is
often an extent of five feet of blossoms, loaded with a succession of
magnificent bells. As we crossed below this beautiful covert, I observed
Dreadnought suddenly turn up the wind towards it. I immediately made for
the crest beyond where the bank rises smooth and open, and whence I had
a free sweep of the summit and of both sides. I had just reached the top
when the dog entered the thicket of the ferns, and I saw their tall
heads stir about twenty yards before him, followed by a roar from his
deep tongue, and a fine buck bolted up the brae. I gave a short whistle
to stop him, and immediately he stood to listen, but behind a great
spruce fir, which then, with many others, formed a noble group upon the
summit of the terrace. The sound of the dog dislodged him in an instant,
and he shot out through the open glade, when I followed him with the
rifle, and sent him over on his horns like a wheel down the steep, and
splash, like a round shot, into the little rill at its foot. We
brittled him on the knog of an old pine, and rewarded the dog, and drank
the Dochfalla; when, having occasion to send the piper to the other side
of the wood, and being so near home, I shouldered the roe, and took the
way for the ford of Craig-Darach, a strong wide broken stream with a
very bad bottom, but the nearest then passable.

As I descended the Bruach-gharbh, Dreadnought stopped and loo