Morning journal and courier., 1881-09-19
One Aspect Of a Highland Visit.

It is the 11th of August as we may assume, when, having slept in the hotel at the little town where we bid adieu to the railway, we are awakened by the boots for early break fast The blinds are drawn up, and through 8 flying shower the sun comes streaming in at the windows. The shower is only the pride of the morning; and there is the prom
 ise, nay. the certainty, of splendid day. We look out across the waters of the firth to the range of blue mountains bounding the north ern horizon, with their summits still swathed i'll wreaths of mist The light breeze scarce Iy ruffies the surface of the estuary, while
 here and there are patches preternaturally
 calm The troops of seafowl are sweeping
 and screaming, and a deliciously penetrating
 odor comes to us from the seaweed strewn on
 the beach; for it is low water, and the sea shallows slowly, and 8 wide stretch of the sand Is left bare. Delightful as are the sights and sounds ana smells, it seems sin to Io1- ter within doors on such a morning Break fast is despatched, and the ''machlne' IS at the door, drawn by couple of sturdy High land s'garrons," !" that will have their work cut | out for them before they drag us over the ! hills, with those gum-cases and portman- ! teaux that are roped on promlscusly. But ! there is no hurry, for the day is long, and we are willing to perform much of the drive at a 1 foot's pace. Over the first part of the jour ney the machine makes creditable play, for | the road lies on fiat between the sands and | the cornfields Then passing little local | watering place in the bottom of romantic | glen, and crossing the bridge over the brawl- | ing salmon stream, the road begins to wind | upward through heathery hills. Yet every here and there 1t dips again to reioin the | banks of 8 river which threads at long inter l vals series of mountain lochs, alternating l rushes and cataracts with stretches of calmer 1 water where it spreads out over the shal- | lows The shelving banks of many of the | lochs are overhung with clusters of feather l ing birches now and again we come upon a | piece of oak coppice, or on the weather r-beat- | en frs with warped limbs that have twined 1 their knotted roots round the rocks rising | abruptly out of the river.
 l Further on and higher up the country be- l comes more savage. There Is nothing but | heather to be seen i'll the foreground or mid l dle distance, except where the purple moors 1 break away into black, watery bogs, or where | you may rest the eye, by way of variety, on | the smiling pastures of the strath. But on l those higher hills framing the pictures on either side and before us, the heather grows | thinner and thinner till it disappears in des- l erts of stone; and above all are peaks and broken precipices bald scalps of slaty rock. The sun is gliding these rocks and
 everything else; even throwing cheerful
 tinge of yellow over the peat bogs; the shad- ows from some floating clouds are heckine
 the sparkling landscape in places, and falling
 in gray patches on the blue lochs. AS you
 breathe the invigorating air and are dazzled |
 ciate all the glories of a perfect day in the
 Highlands All animated nature seems as
 happy as your own party-the hawks and
 carrion crows lowering in the air; the swal
 lows and insects skimming the water, the
 young broods of game basking on some banl
 by the roadside, and the wild ducks rising lazily from the pools, from among th' l rushes by some of the burns. They seem tC know that the guns are stored away in thu
 cases and that shooting does not begin befor . the morrow. The lodge for which we ar bound stands in a decidedly bleak situation
 The only wood is 8 plantation of stunte, , larches serving very imperfectly their pur pose of screen, and the only attempts a :. ornamental grounds are the gravel sweep be fore the entrance and ''kale yard' within . walls of turf. But to-day, with the gray pea smoke curling up against the mountain i , the background, and the sunbeams refecte l from the lozenged window panes with tn
 l sparrows twittering from the thatch and tn
 ponies switching their flowing tails merrill
 in the paddock it looks the very picture 0
 homelike comfort. With promising sunse and high glass; you go to bed full of pleas | urable hope for the morrow and should tha . 1 sort of weather continue for week or two occasional showers are welcome rather tha
 otherwise-the days will glide by on down
 wings, while you scarcely note the swiftnes
 | of their flight