overhanging ridge. Once above this we found ourselves within a comparatively few feet of the cairn. Visible this was, but nothing else, for thick mist was driving over us in dense clouds, shutting out of view all distant scenery. It was too cold for a prolonged stay, so we hastened down the easy southern slope and ere long reached Mackintyre's, the head keeper's, lodge at Inveroran. He came out to meet us, and was apparently much impressed by the feat accomplished by the ladies, crediting them as being the first to his knowledge to ascend the "Upper Couloir" of Stob Ghabhar.

The excellent photograph taken by Mr Rennie (see Plate II.) shows that portion of the rocky buttress which bounds the southern side of the couloir, the latter commencing at the foot of the rocks to right of the observer. The shadow of the overhanging cornice is well seen to the left, as also the long straight grooves in the snow slope produced by the broken-off pieces of the cornice.

GARBH BHEINN OF ARDGOUR.

BY W. BROWN.

IT is three years ago since I first saw Garbh Bheinn soaring proudly out of Ardgour through the morning mists, its fine cliffs and bastions brightly illumined by the rising sun, and seeming to dwarf by their greater dignity and impressiveness the equally high hills in the neighbourhood. A year later I heard Mr Colin Phillip extolling the merits of a fine mountain at the Fort-William Meet, and assigning to it a high place among the still unappreciated peaks of Scotland. This turned out to be Garbh Bheinn of Ardgour, which, according to Mr Phillip, was a striking and original mountain of bold outline, and full of interesting possibilities for the rock-climber, having a great array of ridges, buttresses, and gullies, all unclimbed, and a fascinating pinnacle supposed to be " inaccessible." Such a catalogue of attractions was, of course, absolutely irresistible, and I therefore learned with dismay that this Admirable Crichton among mountains was reserved for an English party, shortly to be conducted thither by Mr Phillip himself. The party came, but, I believe, neither saw nor conquered. It occupied most of the day wandering in a Scotch mist and soft snow about the base of the mountain, and I suppose returned home disgusted.

So Garbh Bheinn's rocks remained unclimbed until April of this year, when Mr Bell and I, having failed to get into Clachaig owing to the Alpine Club being in possession of that ideal little inn, crossed Loch Linnhe, determined to find consolation in Ardgour. The move was an extremely happy one. It revealed a most charming headquarters at Ardgour Hotel, opposite Corran Ferry, where the climber has all the delights of a most picturesque situation, with convenience of access, moderate charges, and a perfectly fascinating table of fares connected with the adjacent ferry, which, with the infinite variety of arithmetical problems thence arising, will beguile the tedium of an “off day."

Corran is seven miles by road from Inversanda, which is

the nearest inhabited point for Garbh Bheinn, but we were lucky in being driven the distance by the lessee of Inversanda deer forest, who was staying at the hotel. The same gentleman accompanied us to the head of Glen Iubhair, but having other objects in view besides climbing, and not being much impressed with the merits of our route as a means of reaching the top, parted company with us at that point.

Glen Iubhair is rather a featureless glen, but we noted as a promising sign that the prevailing rock as it cropped out in "boiler-plate" slabs in the bed of the stream and high up the hillsides was either our old friend gabbro or something closely resembling it, from the pleasant and wellremembered crunch that our hobnails made in crossing it. A mile from Inversanda the glen takes a bend to the left, and bit by bit Garbh Bheinn creeps into view, forming by the gradual addition of ridge to corrie and crag to buttress one of the boldest pictures of mountain grandeur that is to be seen on the mainland of Scotland. Imagine a deep rocky corrie with a great headland of naked rock projecting into it on the right, and extending in that direction in a long wall of precipice, seamed with gullies and ribbed with ridges, falling in straight lines from the sky-line, and seeming to offer a practically unlimited field to the climber. The crest of the mountain is finely peaked and turreted, and one pinnacle more conspicuous than the rest stands boldly forth in the foreground. This is the so-called "inaccessible pinnacle”—inaccessible, however, as it turned out, to nobody but a lame man.

Of possible routes to the summit from this point I have no doubt a diligent search would discover more than a score. The easiest seems to be up the corrie to the col on the south-east and thence along the south-east ridge; but having regard to the excellence of the rock Bell and I allowed our eyes to rest longingly on the great headland before referred to, which from this point was seen to be cleft into two portions by a large and conspicuous gully that descends from the summit of the mountain. After carefu deliberation we selected the north wall of this gully for our ascent, as it seemed to be the true crest of the buttress, and

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is both steeper and grander than the south one. On reaching the foot of the rocks (at a height of 1,800 feet by Bell's aneroid) we roped and commenced to ascend by a grassy tongue immediately to the left of the gully. From this point to the end of the first stage of the ascent the route is difficult to describe. Generally speaking, our object was to reach a broad grassy ledge or rake that encircles the upper part of the buttress like a girdle, and is very conspicuous from below. We gained this point by following a diagonal course towards the left, making height by a succession of wet and water-worn gullies, and traversing wherever a patch of grass, scree, or heather offered a sufficiently tempting way. The "going" here is treacherous rather than difficult, and it seems probable that a comparatively simple access to the grass ledge can be found on the other side of the ridge.

When the grass ledge is reached, the climber instinctively ascends to its highest point, expecting to find a continuance of the same easy route round the corner. "No road this way," however, is written large upon the forbidding cliffs which there confront him, and on the smooth face of which the ledge terminates. The way indeed seems hopelessly blocked in all directions, but a trial is all that is necessary to show that the steep rocks rising from the upper end of the ledge are quite practicable, and indeed far more easy than they look. We traversed first to the right and then backwards to the crest of the buttress, which was afterwards followed to the summit of the mountain. The climbing is continuously steep and interesting, with a delightful uncertainty arising from every fresh pinnacle and traverse, suggesting the possibility of defeat at the last moment, or a less comfortable retreat down the sides of the precipice if the ascent be persisted in. No place is specially difficult, but I have a vivid recollection of returning some aid Bell rendered me earlier in the climb, by crawling on his invitation to the back of a cave, and making a "jammed stone of my back and limbs, while my companion climbed gaily on to the roof, and made all the stones around me shake and rattle and threaten instant burial of my mortal remains. After the ridge was reached, the rocks, which throughout

are splendidly firm and sound, formed an easy if somewhat steep staircase; and with the exception of one rather sensational traverse on the right-hand side, the climbing was without incident. The whole ascent from the foot of the rocks occupied two and a half hours, and without being either difficult or dangerous, was one of the most charming and interesting scrambles either of us had ever taken part in. The summit of the mountain (2,980 feet by Bell's aneroid; no height on the O.S. map) is quite an assemblage of tops, and after visiting all of them in turn, we began to think of descending by the " inaccessible pinnacle." While we were standing on the west top, the identity of that alluring eminence was a matter of animated discussion. It would really appear to be the projecting bluff which runs down from the central top, but we concluded at the time that it must be a sharp rocky point that we could see low down on the shattered ridge leading from it towards the N.E. Accordingly to that point we made tracks, and after some manoeuvring down an A. P. chimney and across a hard frozen snowfield, we had an enjoyable scramble across the point in question and several subsidiary ones. The ridge is so shattered and rotten as to be marked out for special notice in the six-inch map as the Fiaclan an Garbh Bheinn, but its descent is a matter of no great difficulty.

From the foot of the mountain we made our way home across the col between Beinn Bheag and Sgor Mhic Eacharna, and afterwards through Glen Gour.