in the late number of this Journal, by Mr W. A. Smith. It is dedicated to "the noblemen and gentlemen of the Highland and Agricultural Society," and forms a sensible, delightful story-book, full of anecdote, history, and legend, to enliven the passage along the principal routes through the Highlands. As they are happily Scots, we hear less of the filth of the inns and horrors of the roads than from Southern travellers; being both somewhat scientific, we have a good deal of the botany and geology of the country; though not always according to the gospel of Sir Arch. Geikie. Their preface informs us that no guide-book of the kind had existed before. They are encouraged to write it (oh, that all writers of modern guidebooks had a similar qualification!) by the fact that they already possessed "an extensive acquaintance with the mountainous districts of their native land"; and they appeal with pride to "the unqualified admiration of strangers from every part of Europe of the scenery of the Highlands."

The glories of the Highlands are described as follows:'They exhibit within very circumscribed limits varieties of scenery of the most opposite descriptions, enabling the admirer of nature to pass abruptly from dwelling on the loveliness of an extensive marine or champaign landscape into the deep solitude of an ancient forest, or the dark craggy fastnesses of an Alpine ravine; or from lingering amid the quiet grassy meadows of a pastoral strath or valley, watered by its softly flowing stream, to the open heathy mountain-side, whence 'alps o'er alps arise,' whose summits are often shrouded with mists and almost perennial snows, and their overhanging precipices furrowed by foaming cataracts."

Good and entertaining as these worthy brothers are, their feeling towards the hills is not the same as ours. At Dalwhinnie they speak of "the uniformly bleak and melancholy aspect of the moors. The mountains are dull and uninteresting in their forms; the plain between them is uniformly 'houseless, treeless, and lifeless,' wanting in everything but barrenness and deformity. There is not even an object so much worse than another as to attract a moment's attention." From the top of Ben Nevis "it may

safely be said that every point of the horizon is 120 miles from the spectator"; and the view, with its Atlantic and German Oceans, is described accordingly. The mountain has been thrown up in three stages, successive eruptions having occurred one within the other, as inside a gigantic telescope. In the Trossachs the pedestrian "is recommended to explore their untrodden mazes," but this only means he should explore the other side of the river. If he is fond of "lone and wild scenery," he is to take a trip across the hill, from Loch Ard to the Trossachs, five and a half miles long. Schiehallion and Ben Lawers, in travelling through their country, are barely so much as named.

But the sun is sloping; the muleteer, our Editor, is signing to me with a flick of his whip, and I must be off. Farewell, Mr Editor, till May. Then summon me with the first spring weather to the tops, to course with you over the last of the winter's snows. Then call me to the rescue of this Journal, like Juvenal of old, with my stoutest shooting boots upon my feet.*

Juv. Sat., iii. 316-322.

CLACH GLAS, SKYE.

BY FRED. W. JACKSON.

FULL as the Coolins are of fascinating rock climbs, there is hardly to be found a more choice piece of ridge than that known as Clach Glas, connecting Garbh Bheinn (pron. Garrven) on the north with Blath Bheinn (pron. Blaven) on the south. This group, lying to the S.E. of Glen Sligachan, is almost detached from the main chain of the Black Coolins, and joins to the Red Hills at the head of Am Fraoch Coire, where the place of fusion may be easily recognised.

GARBH BHEINN, CLACH GLAS, AND BLAVEN, FROM THE FOOT OF DRUMHAIN.

Looking from Sligachan on a clear day, just where the lines of Garbh Bheinn and Marsco intersect may be seen a dark grey mass, rising like a truncated cone dinged on the right-hand side. That is the summit of Clach Glas. Again, the visitor to Loch Coruisk, approaching the foot of Drumhain, having had in view for some time the rugged slopes of Blaven, comes suddenly in sight of the west face of Clach Glas as the "Red Stack" is left behind. Should

mist be creeping along the tops, as when first I saw it, a lasting impression will be created by the picture of a foreground of heather, Loch an Athain a little way off, with "Rough Corrie" beyond, and higher still-though scarcely separable" Lonely Corrie," surrounded by walls of bare rock of a steepness unusual in places even in the Coolins. The upper rocks of Clach Glas are in fact almost perpendicular-at one part absolutely so. It is forbidding looking, but all the more on that account the climber plans conquest, and considers how the ridge will best "go." He may be a trifle disappointed to find that the most sensational bits are not difficult, and only require care.

The summit is claimed to have been first reached so recently as May 1888 (see Alpine Journal, vol. xiii., p. 445), by Mr Charles Pilkington's party. They attacked it by the west face, and went up the steep southern side of the main tower, but do not appear to have traversed the whole of the ridge. Taken in that way they thought it an "impostor," but the following of the ridge throughout by the absolute crest—about half-a-mile-will be found to give excellent sport. As it is hardly likely that any shepherd ever had occasion to climb the great tower, and as all who knew anything about it declared that it had never been climbed before, Mr Pilkington and his friends may safely be credited with the first ascent, and the honour of it.

The guides always begin by climbing Blaven by the side of the conspicuous cleft on the N.W. end, and then drop down for the traverse of Clach Glas northwards. This was the course adopted when crossing in 1893 with Mr Naismith and others (see Journal, Vol. II., p. 321). On 31st July this year, Dr T. K. Rose and I, with Donald M'Kenzie, took the ridge the reverse way, and I have no hesitation in saying that I am entirely in favour of beginning at the north end. The objections to the other course are, that there is first the six or seven miles of Glen Sligachan to be walked without gaining anything in height, followed by the excessively steep climb of nearly 3,000 feet up Blaven, the greater part of it over the most tiresome screes imaginable. All this is calculated to dull the keen

edge. Further, the ridge is far less imposing approached from the south, and not so interesting. The course I prefer is to walk two and a half miles along Glen Sligachan to the point where a wire sheep fence was in course of erection by the side of the Measarroch Burn, which runs between Beinn Dearg and Marsco. On the right bank there is a welldefined deer-stalker's track. About a mile and a half up, the stream divides. Cross over here, and walk up the heathercovered tongue between the branches of the stream until the water-shed is reached, and a view obtained in the direction of Loch Ainort. Still keep slightly upwards, until a deep channel is crossed. Beyond this a sheep track will be seen, running almost level for three-quarters of a mile along the flank of Marsco, and round the head of Allt Coire nam Bruadaran, the valley ending at Loch Ainort. It is important to strike this track, or time may be lost working along the steep grass slope. It leads to another watershed at a height of about 900 feet. Here Am Fraoch, or "Heather" Corrie-locally designated "The Corrie of the Shields"running between Marsco and Ruadh Stac (the "Red Stack") down to Glen Sligachan, lies at our feet, to the right. A track will easily be seen curving round the head of this corrie, and in ten or fifteen minutes, still at about 900 feet level, yet another watershed (the third) is reached, with Loch an Athain immediately below, and beyond it a view along the valley to Camasunary and Loch Scavaig. Clach Glas and Blaven rise in all their grandeur about a mile to the S.E., across the desolate hollow known as "Lonely" Corrie. The accompanying illustration is drawn from a sketch taken on the bealach to show the rocks of Clach Glas, and has been checked and corrected from a photograph by Professor Weiss.

So far it has been easy going, and, because of the constant change of scene, much more interesting than Glen Sligachan. There is now a choice of routes. One is to make for the top of Garbh Bheinn, but this way lies over small moving screes, moving to wrath! Another is to descend into the corrie, so as to skirt under the rocks forming its north side, and then mount again over screes to the grass saddle between Garbh Bheinn and Clach Glas. The true sporting