We passed through Glensheal, with prodigious mountains on each side.  We saw where the battle was fought in the year 1719.[437] Dr. Johnson owned he was now in a scene of as wild nature as he could see; but he corrected me sometimes in my inaccurate observations.  ’There, (said I,) is a mountain like a cone.’  JOHNSON.  ’No, Sir.  It would be called so in a book; and when a man comes to look at it, he sees it is not so.  It is indeed pointed at the top; but one side of it is larger than the other[438].’  Another mountain I called immense.  JOHNSON.  ’No; it is no more than a considerable protuberance.’

We came to a rich green valley, comparatively speaking, and stopped a while to let our horses rest and eat grass[439].  We soon afterwards came to Auchnasheal, a kind of rural village, a number of cottages being built together, as we saw all along in the Highlands.  We passed many miles this day without seeing a house, but only little summer-huts, called shielings.  Evan Campbell, servant to Mr. Murchison, factor to the Laird of Macleod in Glenelg, ran along with us to-day.  He was a very obliging fellow.  At Auchnasheal, we sat down on a green turf seat at the end of a house; they brought us out two wooden dishes of milk, which we tasted.  One of them was frothed like a syllabub.  I saw a woman preparing it with such a stick as is used for chocolate, and in the same manner.  We had a considerable circle about us, men, women, and children, all M’Craas, Lord Seaforth’s people.  Not one of them could speak English.  I observed to Dr. Johnson, it was much the same as being with a tribe of Indians.  JOHNSON.  ‘Yes, Sir; but not so terrifying[440].’  I gave all who chose it, snuff and tobacco.  Governour Trapaud had made us buy a quantity at Fort Augustus, and put them up in small parcels.  I also gave each person a bit of wheat bread, which they had never tasted before.  I then gave a penny apiece to each child.  I told Dr. Johnson of this; upon which he called to Joseph and our guides, for change for a shilling, and declared that he would distribute among the children.  Upon this being announced in Erse, there was a great stir; not only did some children come running down from neighbouring huts, but I observed one black-haired man, who had been with us all along, had gone off, and returned, bringing a very young child.  My fellow traveller then ordered the children to be drawn up in a row; and he dealt about his copper, and made them and their parents all happy.  The poor M’Craas, whatever may be their present state, were of considerable estimation in the year 1715, when there was a line in a song,

     ‘And aw the brave M’Craas are coming[441].’