ill now complain no more, but tell my mistress of my travels.

After we left the Macraes, we travelled on through a country like that
which we passed in the morning. The highlands are very uniform, for
there is little variety in universal barrenness; the rocks, however, are
not all naked, for some have grass on their sides, and birches and
alders on their tops, and in the valleys are often broad and clear
streams, which have little depth, and commonly run very quick; the
channels are made by the violence of the wintry floods; the quickness of
the stream is in proportion to the declivity of the descent, and the
breadth of the channel makes the water shallow in a dry season.

There are red deer and roe bucks in the mountains, but we found only
goats in the road, and had very little entertainment, as we travelled,
either for the eye or ear. There are, I fancy, no singing birds in the
highlands.

Towards night we came to a very formidable hill, called Rattiken, which
we climbed with more difficulty than we had yet experienced, and, at
last, came to Glanelg, a place on the seaside, opposite to Skie. We
were, by this time, weary and disgusted, nor was our humour much mended
by our inn, which, though it was built of lime and slate, the
highlander's description of a house, which he thinks magnificent, had
neither wine, bread, eggs, nor any thing that we could eat or drink.
When we were taken up stairs, a dirty fellow bounced out of the bed,
where one of us was to lie. Boswell blustered, but nothing could be got.
At last, a gentleman in the neighbourhood, who heard of our arrival,
sent us rum and white sugar. Boswell was now provided for, in part, and
the landlord prepared some mutton chops, which we could not eat, and
killed two hens, of which Boswell made his servant broil a limb; with
what effect I know not. We had a lemon and a piece of bread, which
supplied me with my supper. When the repast was ended, we began to
deliberate upon bed: Mrs. Boswell had warned us, that we should _catch
something_, and had given us _sheets_, for our _security_, for--and--,
she said, came back from Skie, so scratching themselves. I thought
sheets a slender defence against the confederacy with which we were
threatened, and, by this time, our Highlanders had found a place, where
they could get some hay: I ordered hay to be laid thick upon the bed,
and slept upon it in my great coat: Boswell laid sheets upon his bed,
and reposed in linen, like a