going in the boat, too. A soldier
came along, also. He was one of the sappers and miners, that we saw on
the top of Ben Lomond. He told me that he came down to get some things
that were coming in the boat.[D]

[D] The boys had seen a party of sappers and miners, as they are called,
that is, military engineers, who were established on the top of Ben
Lomond, in a hut which they had built there. They were employed there,
in connection with other sappers and miners on the other mountains
around, in making a survey of Scotland.

"We waited on the pier a few minutes, and then we saw the boat coming
around a point of land. As soon as she came up to the pier we all got
in, and a gentleman and two ladies came on shore.

"The weather was very pleasant, and so we did not go down into the
cabin. All the passengers were on the deck, looking at the mountains. I
talked with some of them. One party came from New York, and the
gentleman asked me what there was to see at Rowerdennan Inn; and so I
told him about our going across the lake, and about our ascending the
mountain. He said he wished that he had landed, too, so that he might go
up the mountain, since it proved to be such a pleasant day.

"Uncle George gave Waldron and me leave to go up on the bridge to see
the mountains before us, up the lake. They looked very dark and gloomy.
The captain was there. He told us the names of the mountains that were
in sight. He said that when we landed at Inversnaid we should go across
the high land, and then should come to another lake, where there was
another steamboat, only she had not commenced her trips yet, and so we
should have to go down the other lake in a row boat. Waldron and I were
both glad of that.

[Illustration: THE BOYS ON THE BRIDGE.]

"At last we came to Inversnaid. We thought it would be a town, but it
was not. It was only an inn on the slope of the mountain, near the
shore, and by the side of a waterfall. We walked up a steep path to the
inn, from the pier. We had to pay twopence apiece for the privilege of
landing on the pier. Uncle George asked us whether we would rather walk
or ride across the high land to the other valley. We said we did not
care. He said that he would rather ride. So he engaged one of the
_machines_. They call the carriages machines. There were two standing in
the inn yard. There were two seats to these carriages, but no top, and
very little room for any baggage. So it was lucky for us that we had