[Sidenote: HAPPY DAYS IN THE HIGHLANDS.] Accounts of rides on shaggy Highland ponies to the tops of mountains, and more lengthened _incognito_ excursions in whatever vehicles could be procured at third-rate country inns, are thickly scattered over the pages of the "Journal." The Western Islands, as well as the Highlands, were at least on one occasion visited. Anchoring close by wondrous Staffa, the Queen disembarked, and was rowed in a barge into Fingal's Cave. This was the first time that the British standard, with a Queen of Great Britain and her husband and children, had ever entered the portals of this wondrous freak of nature, and the Gaelic oarsmen gave three cheers, the echoes of which from the inmost recesses of the cave were most impressive. On another mountain ramble, the Queen seated herself calmly, the youthful Prince of Wales lying among the heather by her side, while Prince Albert went to stalk a deer. He brought down a "royal," that is, a stag which has over a certain number of "tines" to his horns; on which the somewhat superstitious Highland keeper at once said that "it was Her Majesty's coming out that had brought the good luck." The Highlanders all believed that the Queen had "a lucky foot." [Sidenote: SALMON-SPEARING IN SCOTLAND.] Amongst other Highland sports which curiosity and great love of adventure led her to witness, was salmon spearing, or "leistering." While the keepers were beating the waters, the Highland gentlemen wading in the stream, and Prince Albert watching, spear in hand, on a boulder, the Queen watched from the brink this, the most exciting of all river sports, save, perhaps, otter hunting. Suddenly she was alarmed, and with most abundant cause. Two of the men imprudently went into a very deep pool. One of them could not swim, and he sank to the bottom. There was a cry for help, and a general rush by the Prince and others to the spot. The Queen was much frightened, and grasped the arm of the minister in attendance, Lord Carlisle, in great agony. But Dr. Robertson, the Queen's "factor," or agent over the Balmoral estate, swam in and got the too venturesome Gael out safely. The Queen, after this "horrid moment," had the satisfaction of seeing eight salmon speared or netted; and was further amused by a curious piece of Highland courtesy--her own "men" carrying all the "men" of Colonel Forbes, a neighbour, dry shod on their backs through the water. They had come to see the sport, and the Queen's gillies at once insisted on their conveying them to the most favourable side of the stream.