Page:A Companion and Useful Guide to the Beauties of Scotland.djvu/302

284 pieces of stones, filled (to an ignorant eye) with gold, silver, and all sorts of metallic substances. The stones were so pretty I could not throw them away, though I knew they were neither uncommon, nor, to a mineralogist, worth a straw. The sun was set before I left this secluded Alpine scenery, and nearly dark when I came within sight of Dalwhinie inn.

From Dalwhinie I retraced my steps to Dalnacardoch; it was the 13th of August, a fine bright day. The attendants, and horses of sportsmen, who were come to the Highlands to shoot, enlivened the scene at Dalnacardoch: and as I sat in the carriage writing, the carters as they passed, regaled me with soft, sweet, Galic ditties, that delighted my ear. Nothing can exceed the melody of the Galic tunes, sung by a tolerable voice. The murmuring of the river Garrie also added to the harmony all around me; so that the hour and a half the horses required to rest, seemed to be very short. I was not a little amused with the expressions of the comers and goers, but one of Allen's was quite new to me. A chaise coming from the road I was going, driven by a Perth lad;—Allen hailed him, by saying, "What like is that road?" the answer, "dreadfully hilly!"