it up altogether. All the way from here to Wick there will be no difficulty. It will be a very pleasant journey."

Grimkie then unfolded his map in order to explain to his aunt the general features of the country so far as they affected the different modes of travelling to the north of Scotland.

"Here is Wick," said Grimkie, pointing to the situation of that town on the northwest coast of Scotland. It lies as the reader will see by the map, north of a great bay formed by the union of Murray and Dornock Firths. Grimkie pointed out the situation of Wick and also that of Inverness, which lies in the bottom of the bay, at the head of Murray Firth.

"The steamer," he says, "sails from Edinburgh once a week. She touches at Aberdeen, for that is directly in her way, on the eastern coast."

Here Grimkie pointed out the situation of Aberdeen,

"But she does not go to Inverness," continued Grimkie, “although that is a very large and im-portant town, because that would take her too much out of her way. So she steers right across the mouth of the bay, where she must be in the open sea for some time, and makes for Wick. There she takes in freight and passengers, and

then sails again north along the coast to the Orkney Islands. The town where she stops in the Orkneys is Kirkwall. After that she sails on and goes to the Shetland Islands, fifty or sixty miles farther over the open sea."

"But Grimkie,” said Mrs. Morelle, "why did not you propose to go to the Shetland Islands instead of the Orkneys, while you were about it? You would be still more among the Norsemen's seas there, and the nights would be still shorter."

"Ah!" said Grimkie, "that was my discretion, Auntie. I should like very much to go on to the end of the route, and to see the Shetland ponies, but I knew that you and Florence would not like so long a voyage, and so I only proposed going to the Orkneys."

"That was discretion indeed," said Mrs. Morelle. "But tell us the rest of the plan. How about getting to Wick ?"

"The next stage this side of Wick," said Grimkie, "is Inverness. From Inverness to Wick we should go by stage-coach. That we should all like. You said the other day, on board ship, that you would like one more good ride in an English stage-coach, and here is an excellent chance. The road winds in and out to pass round the locks and firths, and then coasts

along the sea delightfully. At least so my guide book says. There is one splendid pass which it goes through, equal to Switzerland."

"I should like that very much," said Mrs. Morelle. "And now how about getting to Inverness ?"

"There are three ways," said Grimkie. "We can go by the railroads on the eastern side of the island, or by coaches and posting up through the center, or by inland steam navigation on the western side."

Grimkie then went on to explain what he had learned by long study of the maps and guide books during the day. The information which he communicated was substantially as follows:

The western part of Scotland north of Glasgow is so mountainous, and so intersected in every direction with long and narrow bays setting in from the sea, and also with inland lakes, that no railroad can well be made there. By connecting these lakes, however, and by cutting across one or two narrow necks of land, and making canals and locks along the sides of some rapid rivers, a channel of inland navigation has been opened, by which steamers can pass all the way from Glasgow to Inverness, through the very heart of the country. The route of the steamers in taking this voyage, for some portion