Show eln C T ONE period non ben was held to bo be the highest A hill in great britain but with the advent of more accurate scientific methods in the determining ter of altitude it was forced to yield feld pride of place to ben nevis tho the summit of which dominating the at seaboard aboard bc of scotland stands just over feet above sea level jn in reality ben nevis b has a great superiority perio rity in height over the first men cloned hill for at its base it la Is no more than feet above the waters of lot the atlantic whereas ben mac dhul takes its riso rise from tho the high ground of mar at an elevation of quite 1500 feet it was early afternoon when we left glen nevis with the object of spending the night on the khe summit of the ben after a long spell of cold and misty conditions an atlantic antle anticyclone anti cyclone which ila had some time been struggling to dominate our weather at length gained the upper hand over a series of small depressions and a succession of magnificent pays days was the result I 1 birches on lower slopes I 1 the walk up the lower slopes of pen nevis is comparatively jesting though wo noted that up to the he 1500 foot level straggling birches clothed the hillside and we were interested ite te in comparing the limit of their growth with that attained by them on the cairngorm hills As we I 1 gained the upper reaches of the hill the starry saxifrage stel stcl laris and also Sasi fraga hyp noides were common and an occasional plant of bf the parsley fern Allo crispus protruded its delicate foliage from between the rocks for the last 1000 yeat feet of the climb however vegetation was quite absent hundreds of acres of volcanic scree covering the hill as far as the fhe eye could reach at an altitude of feet the writer watched for some time a number of i f A 1 P nr l c W v y T v i i X sl kc k C Q sy na S S basis cy t y y lys X x p fy y w vivyl viv yi jacv jA tv fr y saya K anyn feydt N I 1 WE M lv 6 4 aj V 05 iw if fi T g ak t A M J LOOKING TOWARD ATLANTIC BOARD ABOARD A ravens apparently a brood of the present season accompanied by the parent birds they were feeding on a spur of the hill and as they rose gave in an exhibition of soaring powers little interior inferior to those of the eagle himself it wag was near sunset as we reached the summit cairn even with the rummer half gone tho the winters snow still covered the plateau in places to a depth of quite four feet and cornices cornicks cor nices of snow projected over the giant precipices though the sun had already set in the glens below the plateau w was s still bathed in its soft rays the snowfields snow fields in its glow taking on a faint pinkish tinge arctic in its effect lower and lower sank the sun in the northwestern sky passing just above tho the tops of tho the coelln hills in the isle of okyo and throwing out their jagged peaks in strong relief it ultimately sank beneath the horizon across the hills of kroldart Knol dart at exactly four minutes to nine for a full three quarters of an hour after this time its rays still shot high into the northern sky and at no period of the night did the dull red afterglow disappear entirely from the horizon A short time previously we had seen the light of the sun reflected on the waters of the far atlantic and now the hills on the island of rum the homo home of heavy stags stood out sharply near by we could make out a 1 strip of the low lying island of eigg arld and ahe the hebrides with their conical peaks prominent among which was hekla were distinct on the horizon to the east all was haze save where a waning moon struggled just above the I 1 horizon to pierce the mist with her silvery rays sea of mist by dawn the entire face of the landscape had changed buring the brief hours of darkness a pall of white mist whose place of origin was tims the cold waters laterz of the north sea had crept silently rilent ly and vapidly lapi illy over the hundreds of miles of country dominated by the hilltop prom from this vast sea of mist t the p tops of the highest hills stood clear and in the morn morning n air such a sight as wo we were privileged to look down doan upon Is ono one which is 13 extremely rare in this country and during an extensive and varied wandering on the at overy every season of the year tho the writer had never once experienced similar conditions when more than at all other times the lover of the grand and lofty in nature has instilled into him the charm of the hills in its most inspiring form prior to the rising 0 of f the sun the mist was of a cold gray tinge then gradually almost imper imperi i a rosy hue was imparted tred two to the clouds beneath ind and soon after sunrise the shadow of the ben was projected on tho the mists for many miles to tho the southwest scarcely a breath of wind stirred on an the summit of tho the hills but far below the clouds were being guided westwards and during their silent progress assumed I 1 in places the forms of gigantic billows or rose above tho the average level aa they slipped over some less kroml cromli nent hill which barred their pro progress gresl by ten the sea of cloud was as yet unbroken and now reflected the rays of the sun with dazzling bril liance high above tho the mist to 0 thel the ca eastward stward the cairngorm hills were wera visible cairn caim toul feet being specially prominent across the miles of intervening country its contour was vas clearly seen eyen the corrie of clais alais an toul and further north the slopes of Bra Brac erisch risch with the largo large snowfield in the horseman Hor semans ns corrle corrie across the valley of the dee ben was made out tho the cairn on its summit being distinctly visible loch na lia gar held its top above the clouds and just appearing above the summit of ben alder one could distinguish the outline of bainn ri galilo the mist Aloun mountain afountain tain so named because its summit is often shrouded in cloud when the surrounding hills aro are clear but tho the most prominent of the peaks projecting ting from the sea mist was that of hallion allion whose tapering cone stood out with true alpine aldine effect westwards the twin tion tops of Cru creachan achan were just visible above the clouds but here the mist enveloped all but the summits of the highest hills in the corrle corrie of the alit ailt a far beneath us the mist ebbed slowly backward and forward seemingly endeavoring to press upwards to the higher ground but making little it if any headway agor a haim a few miles to the southwest was nas prominent its crater shaped corrie coi rie being flooded in bright sunshine and as wo we scanned the corrie through the glass a couple of stags were seen to gain the ridge and to look down into the white sea below an intense silence was everywhere one missed the low croaking of the ptarmigan and the dark form of the eagle as he soared high above the plateau As compared with tho the summit of the cairngorm mountains the absence of plant life is striking for on the latter hills even the highest grounds are at present tinged with red from the many plants of the cushion pink silence ac aulls in full blossom although the summit of ben nevis is quite devoid of Tege vegetation the writer came across a number of plants of tho the starry starr saxifrage frage at an elevation of quite feet and a species of cares was seen scan above even this height |