did not desire the Club to become a stravaging or marauding Club, insisting on going everywhere at every season, with or without leave, and indifferent to the rights and the enjoyments of farmers, proprietors, and sportsmen. That position, I am thankful to say, the Club has consistently maintained. In our winter climbs we have been welcomed and assisted wherever we went; in our summer climbs, our members have not treated the mountains as exclusively their own, and have recognised that they are capable of affording more kinds of sport than one. Deer-stalking is a rare and noble sport, identified for centuries with the Highlands: a sport in which a considerable part of the Highland population are interested in various ways; and it is a sport for which a certain amount of quiet and exclusiveness is essential. Where such exclusiveness has been excessive, and beyond the necessary requirements of sport, it has too often been the result of the want of consideration on the part of tourists themselves, who, pushing themselves in everywhere, after the true fashion of the Briton when he is away from his own home, in thoughtlessness or defiance, and with no particular end to serve except that of pleasing themselves and asserting their independence, have frequently spoilt sport when a little inquiry or forbearance would have pointed out to them some other direction in which they could have got all the pleasure they wanted for themselves without interfering with the pleasure of any other person.

No one who has experienced what it is to have a long carefully-planned stalk marred at the last moment for the day-it may be for several days-by the blundering obtrusion of a southern tourist in some perfectly unnecessary place, will fail to appreciate the excellence of the Club rule that while we love the mountains we desire to take the utmost pains to prevent our enjoyment of them interfering with that of other people. The fact that Cameron of Lochiel and the Marquis of Breadalbane have been our first Honorary Presidents, and show a warm interest in the Club, is sufficient proof that we know nothing of the theory which assumes that proprietors form the only class whose rights and wishes as to the disposal of land should be disregarded.

The periodical mering of the Club have been so successful that a word should be said about their origin. The first informal gadening of members for a climb was held on Friday, 6th Apr 1882 when Dr Coats, Prof. Jack, Messrs Mars Perito Mben Thomson, Munro, and myself slent at Locheamhead with the intention of going over Ben More to Chananth The Saturday produced a raw east wind with must on the tops, developing later into sleet and snow. Brod Jack left us at the base; but the rest of us in some of thick mist, bitter east wind, and driving show, me may by compass and aneroid with perfect correctness: at first up Stobinian, then down into the gap that divides Stobinian from Ben More, and then up Ben More and down on the other side. We were rather proud of our success under the conditions of the day. Beyond a grateful introduction for some of us to the beauty of snow crystals, the main incidents of the day were that having unluckily taken leather instead of worsted gloves, I got all but frost-bitten in my fingers; and that another member of the party in descending made a rather serious slip, which well illustrated the uses of the rope.

In October of the same year Naismith, Stirling, Watt, and Gilbert Thomson had a meet at Arrochar, described in the Journal; at Easter 1890 Coats, Thomson, and Naismith were climbing in the Black Mount; and on Ist January 1891 there was another informal meet at Lochearnhead, described by Mr Maylard, at which Fraser-Campbell, Lester, Maylard, Naismith, and Gilbert Thomson were present. By that time the idea of having regular meets, officially arranged beforehand, had been talked of, and the first meet of the kind took place at the Crook Inn on Tweed, at the suggestion of Prof. Veitch, on Friday, 27th February 1891; and on the next day, to Mr Veitch's great satisfaction, the whole party went up the Broad Law, a hill which throughout his life had been one of his greatest favourites. This was followed by a meet at Dalmally at Easter 1891, and since then each New Year and Easter has seen an ever-increasing representation of the Club at some Highland centre.

And now, long may the Club live and prosper! New as its aim and work is in some respects, let us remember that there have been good men before us who have pointed the way to the hills in Scotland and elsewhere, and let us try to live up to the best of what they did and felt. We have many new realms to conquer; may we conquer them and enjoy them when conquered, in the true mountaineering spirit, and do everything we can to encourage that spirit in the young generation which is rising around us.

THE CORRIES ROUND ACHALLADER.

BY HERBERT C. BOYD.

How many members of this Club, I wonder, are acquainted with the farm-steading of Achallader?-that small group of buildings clustering, for company, as I fancy, round the solitary old ruin which stands like a hoary sentinel on the very verge of the Moor of Rannoch, and which looks out, as it has done for centuries, over the wide expanse of swelling moorland towards the rolling hills beyond. The farm is an extensive one, and is occupied by a numerous household; but so far as intercourse with the outer world is concerned, it is lonely. The railway passes quite close to it; the mouldering grey keep which overlooks it must, indeed, be a familiar object to the eyes of all travellers to Fort-William; but I should think that it has hitherto held itself in compara-. tive seclusion from the restless surge of nineteenth-century civilisation. It watches the busy and the pleasure-seeking world flash past it from day to day, but suffers it not to disturb its ancient repose. The character of the only approach to it—from Bridge of Orchy-certainly does not suggest that its seclusion is often disturbed. And yet the place is worthy of a visit, and once visited is likely to draw you back. The tired city man, in search of rest and fresh air, could find no purer or more peaceful spot to recuperate his powers; for the angler there is Loch Tulla, scarcely a mile below, fed with scores of streams pouring from the hills, all teeming with fish; while the climber who delights in long lung-filling tramps over the hills, or in scrambling among their black and savage corries, can here find abundant scope for his favourite pastime. Two rugged mountains overshadow it behind - Beinn an Dothaidh (3,267 feet), which lies two miles to the south, and Beinn Achallader (3,403 feet), a mile and a half to the E.S.E. The summit of Beinn Creachan (3,540 feet), which is three and a half miles to the east, is concealed by the projecting shoulder of Beinn Achallader. These mountains (not to mention others farther away, but quite accessible) all possess fine corries on their northern faces; Beinn Creachan has also an eastern

corrie, separated from the northern one by a shoulder which runs north-east, forming the march between the counties of Perth and Argyle. It was with the view of exploring some of these little-known corries that a party, consisting of William Brown, A. E. Robertson, and myself, was organised towards the end of last January, and fixed on Achallader Farm as a base of operations.

When we stepped on to the platform at Bridge of Orchy that Saturday evening, the very essence of gloom appeared to have descended on the face of nature. The night was black as pitch. Dark, heavy masses of cloud came hurrying up from the south, accompanied by strong wind and a drizzling rain. Nothing could look more unpromising than the prospects of mountaineering in the depth of winter under such conditions. Having donned our "wettermantels," adjusted our "rücksacks," and furnished our precious lantern with a candle purchased at the village store, we were set on the track by the policeman of those parts, and off we stepped into the dark on our night march.

And what a march that was! If we had to cross one stream, we had to cross a hundred—the road was simply intersected by them at intervals of every fifty yards-and no mere rivulets, but formidable mountain torrents, whose roar could be heard through the darkness long ere we reached them. Then it was "Lantern-bearer to the front, and light the way across!" and the bearer of the saving light would gingerly pick his way across on such steppingstones as were to be found, then turn the cheering beams on his benighted comrades on the farther side, and encourage them with shouts to leap with confidence on the slippery stones that wobbled treacherously in midstream. What we should have done without that lantern I shrink from contemplating. And every now and then it would flicker and go out, and there would be much huddling together and a vast expenditure of matches before it could be rekindled. But "the longest lane has a turning"; before half-past eight the friendly gleam of the lights of Achallader announced that our wanderings were at an end, and the warm welcome of our host, Mr Stewart, and a hot supper banished from our minds the perils of the road.