LOCHNESS. FALLS OF FOYERS. 57 



channel with amazing impetuosity invading the bed of the river Oich, and 

 covering its banks to the height of five feet above the ordinary level. This 

 continued for about an hour in violent ebb and flow; and then, a huge wave 

 bursting upon, and inundating the northern bank, the commotion gradually 

 subsided, and the waters returned to their bed. Loch-Tay exhibited a similar 

 phenomenon ; and in various other parts of the island, as our readers are aware, 

 lakes and rivers at the same time gave strange evidence of sympathy in that 

 terrible catastrophe. 



Of this celebrated and much-frequented scene, the Falls of Foyers, Burns 

 has transmitted us a correct and vivid picture in the following lines : 



" Among the heathy hills and ragged woods, 



The roaring Foyers pours his mossy floods ; 



Till full he dashes on the rocky mounds, 



Where, through a shapeless breach, his ftream resounds. 



As high in air the bursting torrents flow, 



As deep recoiling surges foam below" .... 

 " Still through the gap the struggling river toils, 



And still below the horrid caldron boils." 



The Falls are distant about a mile from the " General's hut," or inn, and close to 

 the public road leading to Fort Augustus. After passing across the highly elevated 

 and chiefly moorland district, lying to the south of Loch-Ness, the river Foyers, 

 on reaching the hills which skirt the lake, enters a deep narrow ravine, at the 

 commencement of which it is precipitated over a ledge of rock, about thirty feet 

 in height, and thus forms the Upper Fall. To see this to advantage, it is necessary 

 to descend to the channel of the river below the bridge. From this position 

 the appearance of the headlong and tumultuous mass of waters is very imposing ; 

 while the lofty and perpendicular rocks between which the river pours its noisy 

 and troubled flood, and the aerial single-arched bridge spanning* the chasm, 

 add much to the picturesque effect. Below the Fall, the channel of the river 

 is deep and rocky, and shelves rapidly down towards the lake ; the mountain 

 sides are clothed with luxuriant woods of birch ; and the river, interrupted in 

 its course by numerous masses of rock, is lashed into foam, and hurries impe- 

 tuously forward for about a quarter of a mile. Here it encounters a second 



A little above the cascade, the river is very much contracted between two rocks ; and previously to the 

 erection of the bridge, a log was thrown over this chasm, reaching from one rock to the other, and serving 

 as a bridge to the more courageous foot passengers. There is a tradition, that a person who resided in the 

 heights of the country, while in a state of intoxication, passed on horseback along the log-bridge in a moon- 

 light night ; and that, having gone afterwards to the place, he was so horror-struck at the peril he had 

 escaped, that he returned home, went to bed, and soon after died. 



VOL. II. Q 



