days of sunshine which it has ever been my luck to experience among the hills.

We arrived at Spean Bridge with the forenoon train, shortly after mid-day. The country all along the line was looking its best, for I do not agree with those who maintain that the Highlands require the purple tints of autumn to make their scenery beautiful. To my mind nothing can be grander than the great stretches of brown waste rolling up to the foot of some snowy giant whose head is boldly outlined against a clear blue sky. But this is beside the point. We mounted our bikes and rode off for Invergarry and Tomdoun. Cycling on hard roads, even with luggage, is a pleasant and speedy mode of transit; but when the iron beastie is laden with big hob-nailers, rope, camera, ice-axe, and the other impedimenta of a climbing holiday, and when the roads are of the moist and sandy description, it is another story altogether. Such was the condition of the roads on the 2nd of April, and we were not surprised to find ourselves considerably behind time when we reached Tomdoun. There is a new hotel at Tomdoun which has just been opened, and every comfort that a traveller can desire is to be found there. Of this we took the fullest advantage before launching ourselves into the wild and uncivilised parts of Knoydart,-vague rumours having reached us of the inhospitable reception we were likely to receive on arriving at that far and distant district.

The going was fairly good till Quoich Bridge was left behind, and then, as the shades of night began to fall, the surface of the road grew worse and worse, till at last it became totally unridable, and we had to dismount. A long two hours' trudge followed while we shoved our beasties up the hill to the watershed of Scotland and then down the steep descent to Loch Hourn in pitch darkness. Bearing in mind the inhospitable rumours, we hailed each little cottage and farm as it hove in sight with a request for a bed, and although the inducements held out were enough to soften a heart of stone, we met with the invariable response" Na, we have nae peds for you whateffer, and I doot ye wull nae get pit up hereabouts at all." So on we tramped to our last remaining hope, the "two beds, clean,"

and devoutly prayed that the good people of Skiary would still be up when we reached that far-off hostelry.

The road ends at Kinlochhourn, but a bridle-path leads in two miles to Skiary. In the darkness there was not much of the pathway visible, but on and on we forced our way, over boulders, round sharp corners overhanging the sea, occasionally crossing frozen watercourses, and as often as not carrying our bikes shoulder-high. The last straw was added to our burdens at a place where we were brought to a dead stop by a stone wall covered with bramble bushes, and through which the bikes refused to go. Here we abandoned our steeds for the night, and made our way for a dim light in the far distance. This, when we reached it, some time before midnight, proved to be "Macmillan's Hotel of Skiary." Now the fun began. No admittance! no beds!! and a request to move on!!! A firm resolve, however, to do nothing of the kind gained for us first an entry to a miserable room, and in the small hours of the morning a bed was eventually put at our disposal. But, alas! the comfort of that bed was not conducive to sleep, and although both Mr Rennie and I have done a lot of "roughing it" in past years, we never, neither at home nor abroad, struck anything like this before. Camping out and amateur yachting trips are luxurious experiences compared with a couple of nights at Skiary, and any one who cannot live solely on porridge and whisky had better give Skiary a wide berth.

The following morning broke bright and clear, and the grand scenery round Loch Hourn did much to compensate for the roughness of our quarters. As soon as it was light we were off to recover our cycles, and by 8.30 we had housed them safely and were wending our way down the loch-side to Lurven. The bridle-path which had taken us to Skiary continued all the way to Barrisdale Baysome six miles further. It is a lovely road for those who have time to spend over it, but as it rises with every knoll and sinks again to the sea with the most uncompromising regularity, it gives an amount of climbing one could well dispense with, especially if a serious ascent is contemplated at its other end.

The views of Loch Hourn and Ben Screel were glorious, and Lurven, as we turned into Barrisdale Bay, looked down upon us in unsurpassing grandeur. Its great range of cliffs, seamed with snow-filled cracks, was framed by grassy ridges leading up to the two outlying spurs-Stob a' Corrour and Stob a' Herkill--and made a wonderfully grand picture.

Mr Phillip has already described this mountain in our Journal for September 1891, but I may as well repeat what he says on its main features. First and foremost, there is the great Corrie Gorkill (Coire Dhorrcail) rising from Barrisdale Bay, and surrounded by four giant peaks. Beginning in the N.E., there are :—

=

1. Stob a' Choire Odhair, 3,138 (pron. Stob a' Corrour, hill of the dun corrie), the lower slopes of which on the N.E. are of the rounded grassy type, but the summit ridge is narrow, and continues for a mile, with a big dip, to

2. Ladhar Bheinn, 3,343 (pron. Lurven = the cleft mountain). The ridge from Lurven continues in a rugged outline above the splendid precipice of Corrie Gorkill to the Bealach a' Coire Dhorcaill, 2,350 ap., and rises to

3. Stob Dhorcaill, which is a sugar-loaf buttress running into the corrie. Further to the east is

4. Stob a' Chearcaill, 2,760 (pron. Stob a' Herkill= peak of the circles). This forms the S.E. enclosing wall of the corrie, and is a most striking-looking summit, especially when seen from Barrisdale House, where it presents a form somewhat like a slate set on edge.

We tramped round the Bay of Barrisdale, crossing the river by a wooden bridge, and wended our way up a wellmade stalker's path on the lower slopes of Stob a' Herkill which brought us into Corrie Gorkill above a deep ravine. From here we crossed the stream, and taking the shoulder of Stob a' Corrour, we had a very stiff grind up a long grass slope to the base of the final summit, which rose above us for some 300 feet in a fine peak. As the condition of the rocks was here exceeding treacherous, owing to many being ice-covered and hidden below a thin coating of powdery snow, we put on the rope, for steep slopes on either side made it not a place in which to slip. The

3. Lurven.

4. Stob a' Corrour.

STOB A' CHOIRE ODHAIR FROM THE TOP OF LADHAR BHEINN, 18th APRIL 1897.

LOCH AWE MEET, NEW YEAR 1897.

By H. T. MUNRO.

THE old Campbell saying, “It is a far cry to Loch Awe,” has, with modern facilities of travel, become very fallacious; and, indeed, there are few places more generally accessible to members at all seasons of the year, or more deservedly popular, than the Loch Awe Hotel. What if to many of the older members it is an "exhausted centre"? Who ever tires of the view from Cruachan (if he is lucky enough to get it)? And are there not always the famous "Black Shoot" and the gullies on Beinn a' Bhuiridh? Is there not the north face of Cruachan besides the Drochaid Glas, which, if not a Pons Asinorum at any rate this year, perilously resembled the Lurlei in the utterly depraved manner in which it lured unsuspecting members on to its rocks, and then led them hopelessly astray? And lastly, is there anywhere in the Highlands a more comfortable hotel than the Loch Awe, or a more attentive host than Mr Fraser? What wonder, then, that sixteen members and two guests (a "record" for the winter meet) should have assembled there for the New Year of 1897 ?

Messrs A. E. Maylard and Munro were the first to arrive by the afternoon train, on Thursday, 31st December. They were followed by a large contingent who came by the evening train, including Messrs Gilbert Thomson, Parker, Penny, and Conradi Squance, who had crossed Am Binnein from the south, and joined the train at Crianlarich. Messrs Maclay and Drummond arrived in the small hours of the morning, but, judging both by their execution at breakfast and their feats on the hills, all-night travelling had agreed with them. The other members present were Messrs J. H. Bell, Herbert Boyd, W. Inglis Clark, W. Douglas, W. W. Naismith, J. Napier, Harold Raeburn, and J. Rennie, with Messrs Arnold Boyd and R. S. Manford guests.

The weather, it must be admitted, was not encouraging -mild, rainy, and cloudy, with little snow below 3000 feet; and as there was no frost outside, the hotel billiard-table was converted into a rink, and it is to be feared that the