eem inaccessible except by sea. To one accustomed to the
sumptuous equipment of the Clyde steamers, even the journey to the
shrine of Hugh Miller at Cromarty is pleasant only in good weather: a
wee, puffing, hard-wrought steam-launch takes a slant course of five
miles from Invergordon to Cromarty pier, accomplishing the journey in
forty-five minutes. The fare between the two piers is one shilling, and
there is no extra charge for the use of the cabin, which is reached by a
perpendicular and very slippery ladder, and would be better suited for
philosophical reflection in a gale if the crew did not use it as a
store-room for engine-grease and old oilskins. In the Outer Islands,
Watt's machine is, of course, unknown, and many of the roads which
imaginative cartographers have inserted in their maps, will perhaps be
finished when the last trump is about to sound.

Railway travelling, too, is attended with some inconveniences in winter.
The Glasgow-Inverness train, for example, may, on the coldest night of
the year, break down at Dalnaspidal; and in such a case the passengers
will have to sit, entertained by howling blasts, till a fresh engine
comes up from Blair Atholl. Such an experience was once mine, and I
always think of it when I read the ninth ode of Horace's first book.
Outside were the great snow-sheeted mountains, and the moon was gazing
in blear-eyed compassion through a screen of haze. From end to end of
the train resounded the rhythmic beat of cold-footed passengers striving
to bring some warmth of blood to the toes.

In Grantown-on-Spey, I got an uncommon surprise one February. There had
been some snow in the Lowlands, but at Grantown the fall had been
excessive, and the roads were encumbered. On arriving at the station,
the travellers saw a sleigh waiting to convey them to the hotel. The
conveyance suited the weather admirably, and the horses seemed to be
enjoying the fun. No wheeled vehicles were to be seen: even the milkmen
sleighed their commodity from door to door. "_If we had a brace of
grand-dukes and a bomb or two, we could fancy ourselves in Russia_,"
said the facetious hotel-porter. He asserted that it was well for the
country when abundant snow came down early in the year. It seems that
Grantown is apt to suffer from drought in a hot summer following on a
rainless spring. A copious fall of snow early in the year is retained in
the mountains, and ensures plenty of moisture during the months of heat.
M