A Trip to Glasgow--Kelvin Grove Museum--Highland Association--A
run to Rothesay--Rothesay Aquarium.
Favoured by the most splendid Christmas weather [January 1878],
piercingly cold, indeed, but beautifully bright and clear, a run
from Lochaber to Clydesdale on an agreeable errand is exceedingly
enjoyable. Our first day in Glasgow was devoted to the Kelvin
Grove Museum, which we had now an opportunity, for the first time,
of examining thoroughly and at leisure, and with which, as the
reader may believe, we were very much delighted. On handing our
card to Mr. Paton, the curator, we were received by himself and his
assistant, Mr. Campbell--the latter, of course, a Highlander--in
the friendliest manner; and a couple of hours were very pleasantly
and profitably spent in examining a really curious and valuable
collection, so admirably catalogued and arranged, that we believe
we saw and minutely studied everything to be seen as leisurely and
satisfactorily as was possible in the time at our disposal. Our friend
Mr. Snowie, of Inverness, had written us before leaving home that he
was sending some contributions to the museum, of which he begged us
to undertake the formal delivery, and see properly placed; and this
of course we had much pleasure in doing. These contributions are a
valuable acquisition to the museum, and are as follows:--(1.) Hoopoe
(Upupa epops, Linn.), a female, in fine plumage, and admirably set
up. This bird was captured by the boys at the Inverness Reformatory
School, and dying, notwithstanding it received all the attention
and kindly care that could be bestowed upon it, it passed into
Mr. Snowie's hands. (2.) Wild cat, stuffed, an excellent specimen,
with very prominent markings, trapped at Fasnakyle, on The Chisholm's
estate. (3.) A white blackbird, and an albino bunting, both shot
by Mr. T. B. Snowie near Inverness. (4.) Snipe and other marsh-bird
skins, shot by the same. (5.) Two small hares preserved in a bottle;
taken out of an unusually large-sized female shot at Dochfour in
September 1875; a very interesting preparation. (6.) Head of otter,
trapped on the River Peffer in 1876. (7.) Owl (Strix flammea, Linn.),
shot in October 1877 by Mr. T. B. Snowie. (8.) Egg of golden eagle;
this last, perhaps, the most welcome gift of all, as eagles' eggs
are now become so rare as readily to command prices ranging from £5
to £10 each. Attached to the museum proper there is a fresh-water
aquarium. In one of the tanks, in which several fine pike are
"interned," we noticed that one of the largest, who advanced to the
front of the tank, in order to examine as closely as possible a slip
of paper which we were trailing along the glass by way of bait, had
his muzzle, more particularly the anterior part of the upper jaw,
seriously disfigured by a fungoid growth of jelly-like appearance;
and calling the curator's attention to the fact, we made the remark
that the poor pike seemed too seriously diseased to live long. We
were surprised when told that the fish was none the worse for his
fungoid moustache; that it had been long in that way, and that all
that was needed was an occasional cleansing of the muzzle, as you
would wipe away a clot of jelly that had accidentally fallen on your
knife-handle at dessert, and the fish then seemed all right enough
until it grew again to such a size as to be an inconvenience.
Leaving the museum, we had but barely sufficient time for dress and
dinner before proceeding to take the chair at the Gathering of the
Clans in the City Hall, and a very splendid and enthusiastic gathering
it was. From floor to ceiling the huge building was crammed, and as
we took our seat and bowed in acknowledgment of the truly Highland
welcome that greeted us in the shape of round upon round of loud and
lusty cheers, we could not help feeling a little nervous and out of
sorts in realising the fact that we were for the moment "the observed
of all observers," and, by the kind partiality of the Highlanders
of Glasgow, made to occupy a position of which any one might well be
proud. We were soon at our ease, however, and found no difficulty in
discharging our duties in connection with a meeting which was from
first to last, and in all its belongings, a great success. The dancing
was excellent; the singing could hardly have been better; while the
pipe music was of itself well worth going a much longer distance to
hear than that which separates Nether Lochaber from the City Hall of
Glasgow. No other living man, perhaps, can play reels and strathspeys
as Donald Macphee can play them; and we do not think we ever heard
anything more admirably played than was Malcolm Macpherson's port
mòr or piobaireachd proper, Fhuair mi pòg's laimh mo righ, composed
at Holyrood in 1745 by Ewen Macdhomhnuil Bhuidhe, a Macmillan from
Glendessary and piper to Lochiel, on seeing his chief kiss Charles
Edward's hand at a levee held in the palace of his ancestors by
that Prince a day or two after the victory at Gladsmuir. Macpherson
played this piobaireachd so exquisitely that some of us felt our
eyes grow moist, and were in no wise ashamed of it, long ere he
had reached the difficult but beautifully managed fingering of the
concluding urlar. We have always had a warm regard for James Boswell,
Johnson's biographer, for this amongst other reasons, that, on his
own confession, music frequently affected him as it affected many of
us on this occasion. "Sir," growled Johnson, "I should never hear it
if it made me such a fool." But then a man, however great, cannot be
everything; and Johnson was not only not a Scotchman, but the very
antipodes of a Scotchman--he was an Englishman, proud and prejudiced,
and deaf and dead as a stone to the charms of music, whether vocal or
instrumental. When at Sleat, in Skye, many years afterwards, he made
the confession that "he knew a drum from a trumpet, and a bagpipe from
a guitar, which was about the extent of his knowledge of music." We
parted with our friends of the Highland Association on the best terms;
they were good-natured enough to say that they were pleased with us;
we certainly had every reason to be pleased with them.
We were astir betimes next morning, in order to fulfil an engagement
undertaken at the request of some naturalist friends in London--a
visit, namely, to the Aquarium at Rothesay, an admirably conducted
institution, one of the best in the kingdom. We expected to see a
great deal that could not well fail to interest us, and we did see a
great deal that pleased us very much indeed; the best proof of which
is that after several hours' wandering from tank to tank, it was with
a sigh of regret that our attention was called to the fact that it
was already time for us to put up our note-book and find our way as
quickly as possible to the pier, if we would overtake the Mountaineer
for Greenock, in order to reach Glasgow again that evening. Of all
the tanks, that which we lingered longest before, perhaps, was that
set apart for sea anemones, of which the collection is exceedingly
curious and interesting. All the specimens seemed perfectly healthy
and well-to-do, though, owing to the fact that the afternoon had now
become wet and dull, they were disinclined to display their beauties
in full. In another of the tanks, of which the most distinguished
inhabitant is a conger eel of a large size, we were much amused
with the conduct of a seven or eight pound cod, that seemed as if he
would willingly have spoken to us if he could. As soon as he became
aware of our presence, he came sailing out of a dark recess behind
a rocky promontory--a sort of Mull of Kintyre in miniature--which
is his usual howf, and advancing straight to the front of the tank,
put his nose to the glass, wagging his tail, and staring at us with
an expression of countenance so queer and comical, that it made us
laugh outright. "Well, Nether Lochaber, my boy," he seemed inclined
to say, "how are you? This is all very fine, but on the word of a
cod, believe me that I'd far rather be cruising about the shores
and shallows of Loch Linnhe, down yonder in your own neighbourhood,
than be confined here from year's end to year's end, to be stared at
by a lot of people who may pretend some interest in me from a purely
scientific point of view, but who, between ourselves, if the truth
were known, never see me but they straightway think of how I should
be boiled and served with sauce. Only the other day, for instance, a
lady visitor from Glasgow asked one of the attendants what he thought
might be my weight, and if he was of opinion that a cod out of an
aquarium tank would be quite as good eating as one direct from the
sea? When I hear talk of that kind, it hurts my feelings, I can tell
you." All this, and a great deal more, we fancied the cod would have
said if he could; and as we tapped the glass at his nose and bade him
a friendly good-bye, we almost persuaded ourselves that he responded
with a knowing wink, as with a single sweep of his tail he put about
and joined the conger in a brisk constitutional round and athwart the
tank--a tank so crystal clear, and clean and comfortable, as indeed
are all the tanks, that the inmates, abundantly and regularly fed,
ought to be happy enough, were it not that, like Sterne's starling,
they probably find the great drawback on their happiness in the fact
that after all they are prisoners, that they can't get out. We were
much delighted with the seal-house and its lively and intelligent
occupants. The shape of a seal's head is sufficient to convince
the most careless observer that it must contain a great deal of
brains; while its full and lively eye bespeaks a high and active
order of intelligence. Those at present in the Rothesay Aquarium,
three in number, are most interesting animals, and almost as tame as
lapdogs. It so happened that we entered their house at a time when they
were exceedingly active and lively, for they were well aware that a
large basket, which had just been carried to the side of their tank,
contained fresh fish of some kind or other for their dinner; and they
raced and leaped about in eager expectation of the treat, for they
were evidently hungry--always a good sign of an aquarium inmate. The
fish consisted of small flounders; and the agility and graceful ease
of the motions of these seals, as they dived and dashed after a fish,
which, while they were begging dog-like before us at one end of the
tank, we suddenly tossed to the other end, was so admirable that we
continued a long time to play at a sort of pitch-and-toss game that
was quite as agreeable to them as it could possibly be interesting to
us. We only ceased our part of the performance when we thought that
for the time they must have had enough, the seal being probably as
liable to indigestion as the result of a surfeit as is any other
animal. When, however, they found that they had nothing more to
expect from us, they showed their intelligence and nous by at once
commencing to climb out of their tank, at the very spot, too, where
it was easiest of accomplishment, on the side on which they knew
the fish-basket was placed. What could they now be after? was the
question we asked ourselves. One after another they got out and waddled
along the pavement, awkwardly indeed, but as quickly as they could,
past us, keeping their big and beautiful eyes steadily fixed on ours,
till they reached the basket, and in a moment each had seized a fish,
with which he instantly tumbled heels-over-head into the tank again
at the point nearest him, evidently afraid that we might try and
intercept him, and deprive him of a bonne bouche, which all of them
seemed perfectly well somehow to understand they had no right to take
in such reiving fashion. We noticed that when we threw a fish into
the tank, and one of them got hold of it, the other two endeavoured
to snatch it from him, and for the moment there was a wild tumult and
tumble, in which the water was lashed into foam. In this, however,
as far as we could judge, there was no manifestation of anything like
anger, or the slightest attempt to hurt or injure each other. It
was more like the rough and tumble play of children after a ball,
or something of that sort, which all may strongly desire to possess,
but which only one can have for the moment.