The Washington herald., 1911-09-10

AK away, IN the remote WesteIh
ILNI Highlands of Scotland, there lies a
T narrow and secluded glen. 1t is
about fourteen miles long, running be-
tween some Of the giant Grampians
from west to east. We VIII eau II
Glenryon. Now, far away, remote ana Sc
cln1ed as GleDryon is, it is yet traversed py
three great highways. -,
The most ancient Of these highways, the
one which has been open since there was a
glen at all, is the waterway. -Four miles OF
lcch, ten miles OF river.-traverse the gen
from end to end, and have trayersed' IT SINCE
the primeval pine forests filed 1t up, anu
sheltered bears and badgers, wolves and say say
ages. But by the side OF the waterway, grad
ualy beaten out by savage feet, came track
or path, which hardened and wldened as
reeds increased. and in course OF time, Wnen
road smooth and ct for them, and at last it
was fine coach-road, and two splendid tour
horse coaches traversed 1t each way Twice
daily. ~
Something yet faster and more connections
must come along it yet. The waterway, creep
ing through the forest, the savages' track, the
pack-horse path, and the fine coach,road- have
all been superseded, and straight through the
glen, smoothing all obstacles, making for it,
eelf an undertaking course, lies the great road
for the shining rails, and along it roll huge
engines dragging behind them eight passen-
ger trains daily, and filling up time between
with freight, trains Of small, woolly sheep, long:
horned, beautiful colored Highland cattle and
wild ponies, coming from their remote homes
in the Western islands to the pastures the
markets, the toll and moil of the world. Poor
things!
AT one end of the loch stands the house
where we were spending one shooting season.
At the other end of the loch, some four miles
away, is. house where some friends OF ours
were doing likewise and one pleasant after
noon and my son, Ronald, made up our
minds to go and see these friends. am
Ronalds mother. We made use OF all the
three highways in doing SO. We. started in
loch. Then it is not easy to go further, be-
cause the loch becomes shallow and weedy,
There is therefore mooring place for fish
ing boats at the beginning OF the shallow
place. The railroad here comes close to the
lcch, and into the side of the railway bank
ARE driven some sharp posts for mooring boats.
There is little path up. the bank, and q
very short way further on is gate at level
crossing, where one can get out into the other
highway, the coach-road. '.
mile Of walking along this brought MS to
our friends house. The society OF friends Is
very rare in the Highlands, and you have to
value It the more. So, Ronald and I, en-
yjoying ourselves very much, forgot the fight
OF time. and when we started for our home
ward Journey we. were dismayed to find that
we were half an hour later than we ought to
,".oh,. Ronald, what shall we do?" ex.
claimed
Father will be cross" said consoling Ron.
aid = - =.
"And with good cause too" l replied
After hard days shooting, he and his
friends have a right to a punctual dinner"
III 1t was only me-" said Ronald, 81 could
race for it; but you are not much of a run
! laughed. in spite of my vexation. Stout,
middle-aged ladies usually are not much Of
runners!
Then Ronald said, 'Tet us 60 in at this
first level crossing The line is straighter
than the road. and we shall save good bit
by that" ..
No sooner said than done, and we were on
the line in a moment
Now, the Glenryon line is not a good one
for taking walk upon. It is single line,
so you can never be sure if train win ap-
proach from before or behind you and It
keeps you in continual state of anxiety.
Along the particular mile which we pro
posed TO traverse there is one most unpleas-
ant bit. 1t is about a quarter of a mile long,
and it runs through what was originally bog
of great depth. This bog took so much fiji
ing up that the engineers of the line made
it as narrow as possible. There is just room
OH each side for persons TO step aside from
q passing train. There must be this much
for the safety of the plate-layers when al
work, but there is only. just room.
To keep the line up, the bank is as it were
walled with a steeply sloping wall of smooth
stones, and at the bottom of this slope on
each side rises a strong stone wall, dividing