Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No. 404, June, 1849

NORTH

Swear not at all. Shut your eyes. Open them. Where now your wood?

BULLER

Most extraordinary ocular deception.

NORTH

Quite common. Yet no poet has described it. See again. The same forest a mile off. No need of trees – sun and cloud make our visionary mountains sylvan: and the grandest visions are ever those that are transitory – ask your soul.

BULLER

Your Manilla is out, my dear sir. There is the case.

NORTH

Caught like a cricketer. You must ascend Cruachan. "This morning gives us promise of a glorious day;" you cannot do better than take time by the forelock, and be off now. Say the word – and I will myself row you over the Loch. No need of a guide: inclining to the left for an hour or two after you have cleared yonder real timber and sap wood – and then for an hour or two, to the right – and then for another hour or two straight forwards – and then you will see the highest of the three peaks within an hour or two's walk of you – and thus, by mid-day, find yourself seated on the summit.

BULLER

Seated on the summit!

NORTH

Not too long, for the air is often very sharp at that altitude – and so rare, that I have heard tell of people fainting.

BULLER

I am occasionally troubled with a palpitation of the heart —

NORTH

Pooh, nonsense. Only the stomach.

BULLER

And occasionally with a determination of blood to the head —

NORTH

Pooh, nonsense. Only the stomach. Take a calker every two hours on your way up – and I warrant both heart and head —

BULLER

Not to-day. It looks cloudy.

NORTH

Why, I don't much care though I should accompany you —

BULLER

I knew you would offer to do so, and I feel the delicacy of putting a decided negative on the proposal. Let us defer it till to-morrow. For my sake, my dear sir, if not for your own, do not think of it; it will be no disappointment to me to remain with you here – and I shudder at the thought of your fainting on the summit. Be advised, my dear sir, be advised —

NORTH

Well then, be it so – I am not obstinate; but such another day for the ascent there may not be during the summer. On just such a day I made the ascent some half-century ago. I took it from Tyanuilt – having walked that morning from Dalmally, some dozen miles, for a breathing on level ground, before facing the steepish shoulder that roughens into Loch Etive. The fox-hunter from Gleno gave me his company with his hounds and terriers nearly half-way up, and after killing some cubs we parted – not without a tinful of the creature at the Fairies' Well —

BULLER

A tinful of the creature at the Fairies' Well!

NORTH

Yea – a tinful of the creature at the Fairies' Well. Now I am a total-abstinent —

BULLER

A total-abstinent!

NORTH

By heavens! he echoes me. Pleasant, but mournful to the soul is the memory of joys that are past! A tinful of the unchristened creature to the health of the Silent People. Oh! Buller, there are no Silent People now.

BULLER

In your company, sir, I am always willing to be a listener.

NORTH

Well, on I flew as on wings.

BULLER

What! Up Cruackan?

NORTH

On feet, then, if you will; but the feet of a deer.

BULLER

On all-fours?

NORTH

Yes – sometimes on all-fours. On all-fours, like a frog in his prime, clearing tiny obstructions with a spang. On all-fours, like an ourang-outang, who, in difficult places, brings his arms into play. On all-fours, like the —