intricate network of trenches and moss-pits. They climbed hills where everything was slippery after the rain, from the roots of the heather plants to the surfaces of the flat stones. And shoulder to shoulder they stemmed the strength of streams, where the rush of the waters rose nearly to mid-thigh, and the shifting stones in the bottom gave treacherous foothold. The very sounds of animated nature were either wild or melancholy, in sad harmony with the solitude of those desolate wastes. The grouse brood fluttered up almost under their feet as they plunged their way through some patch of heather. The mountain-hare started up among the shingle and boulders, where she had been crouching in faith in the similarity of her colour. There was the piping of the lonely little moor-birds, and the shrill whistle of the shy curlew; and everywhere was the plaintive bleating of the sheep, gathered for the most part out of sight in the sheltered corries – for the ground they were then traversing lay beyond the limits of the deer-forest.
Both Venables and Leslie were glad enough to see the game-bag unslung and unpacked on the shore of Lochrosque. Bread and beef, cheese and oatcakes, were spread on the greensward, and Peter played an admirable clasp-knife, by way of symphony to the creditable performance of his masters. The day was still young, and there was time before them. Pipes and repose were veritable wisdom.
"Besides," as Venables remarked, "the worst of the work is over. I never was strong in figures, but we must have climbed 2000, or 3000, or 6000 feet, as the case may be."
Mr Venables's estimates might have been more exact, but it was evident, nevertheless, that they had attained a considerable altitude. Lochrosque was very much a counterpart of Lochconan, infinitely more gloomy, but decidedly less grand. There was not a sign of a tree about its banks; and the heather had given place to coarse grass and granite débris. Here and there the low flat banks were broken by weather-beaten rocks, that seemed to have been hurled by some concussion from the heights above, and to have come bounding and rolling down the slopes, till they checked themselves at the bottom of the basin; while on the opposite side to where our friends were sitting, hill rose behind hill. There was no such tremendous precipice-wall as that which frowned upon the south of Lochconan; but the hills were of granite, scantily clothed, and their garments were weather-stained and terribly tattered. Rough terraces of turf hung over clefts and abysses, and torrents had torn their way here and there from summits that were invisible from the banks of the lake. Altogether it was as break-neck a piece of Highland scenery as ever tested the head or tried the lungs and legs of an amateur.
"So these are the famous Braes of Balgarroch," remarked Leslie; "and now, I imagine, you begin to comprehend how the years of the father of the goat family should be patriarchal. If he can manage to pick up a living among these cliffs, immortality must be chiefly a question of sure-footedness."
"It looks very like it," Venables was forced to admit, as his eye ranged from height to height rather disconsolately. "I begin to have a presentiment that previous presentiments may have played me false. It is a tough bit of work, and may be a long one, on the off-chance of our getting a glimpse of the goats. Happily I took the precaution of
