from my shoulders; a strong cotton umbrella
occupied my better hand; and a gray maud, buckled shepherd-fashion
aslant the chest, completed my equipment. There were few travellers on
the road, which forked off on the hill-side a short mile away, into two
branches, like a huge letter Y, leaving me uncertain which branch to
choose; and I made up my mind to have the point settled by a woman of
middle age, marked by a hard, _manly_ countenance, who was coming up
towards me, bound apparently for the Banff or Macduff market, and
stooping under a load of dairy produce. She too, apparently, had her
purpose to serve or point to settle; for as we met, she was the first to
stand; and, sharply scanning my appearance and aspect at a glance, she
abruptly addressed me. "Honest man," she said, "do you see yon house wi'
the chimla?" "That house with the farm-steadings and stacks beside it?"
I replied. "Yes." "Then I'd be obleeged if ye wald just stap in as ye'r
gaing east the gate, and tell _our_ folk that the stirk has gat fra her
tether, an' 'ill brak on the wat clover. Tell them to sen' for her
_that_ minute." I undertook the commission; and, passing the endangered
stirk, that seemed luxuriating, undisturbed by any presentiment of
impending peril, amid the rich swathe of a late clover crop, still damp
with the dews of the morning frost, I tapped at the door of the
farm-house, and delivered my message to a young good-looking girl, in
nearly the words of the woman:--"The gude-wife bade me tell _them_," I
said, "to send that instant for the stirk, for she had gat fra her
tether, and would brak on the wat clover." The girl blushed just a very
little, and thanked me; and then, after obliging me, in turn, by laying
down for me my proper route,--for I had left the question of the forked
road to be determined at the farm-house,--she set off at high speed, to
rescue the unconscious stirk. A walk of rather less than two hours
brought me abreast of the Bay of Gamrie,--a picturesque indentation of
the coast, in the formation of which the agency of the old denuding
forces, operating on deposits of unequal solidity, may be distinctly
traced. The surrounding country is composed chiefly of Silurian schists,
in which there is deeply inlaid a detached strip of mouldering Old Red
Sandstone, considerably more than twenty miles in length, and that
varies from two to three miles in breadth. It seems to have been let
down into the more ancient formation,--lik