BEN-NEVIS. FORT WILLIAM. 63 



no other of the Scottish Alps can exhibit, and which will long retain a place in 

 the spectator's memory.* On forming an enterprise of this kind, however, 

 caution and an experienced guide are indispensable requisites. A melancholy 

 catastrophe, still fresh in the recollection of many of our readers, occurred while 

 descending this mountain last summer, in which an amiable and accomplished 

 youth was snatched away from his bereaved family in the moment of health, 

 hope, and enjoyment. 



Ben-Nevis is particularly interesting to the geologist, and will afford him a wide 

 field for practical study and contemplation. The lower part is composed of mica- 

 slate and gneiss : higher up we meet with syenite ; beyond this with granite, and 

 on the higher elevations with porphyry, in different varieties. 



The obelisk in the fore-ground of the annexed drawing, will be sufficiently 

 explained by quoting the inscription, which is couched in the following terms : 

 " Sacred to the memory of Colonel John Cameron, eldest son of Sir Ewen 

 Cameron, of Fassifern, Bart., whose mortal remains, transported from the field 

 of glory, where he died, rest here with those of his forefathers. During twenty 

 years of active military service, with a spirit which knew no fear and shunned no 

 danger, he accompanied or led in marches, sieges, and battles, the gallant 92d regi- 

 ment of Scottish Highlanders, always to honour, almost always to victory ; and 

 at length, in the forty-second year of his age, upon the memorable 16th day of 

 June, A.D. 1815, was slain in the command of that corps, while actively contri- 

 buting to achieve the decisive victory of Waterloo, which gave peace to Europe. 

 Thus closing his military career with the long and eventful struggle, in which his 

 services had been so often distinguished, he died, lamented by that unrivalled 

 GENERAL, to whose long train of success he had so often contributed; by his 

 country, from which he had repeatedly received marks of the highest conside- 

 ration ; and by his SOVEREIGN, who graced his surviving family with those marks 

 of honour which could not follow to this place, him whose memory they were 

 designed to commemorate. Reader, call not his fate untimely, who, thus 

 honoured and lamented, closed a life of fame by a death of glory." 



Fort William is a market town, but exhibits little of the activity generally 

 associated with towns so qualified. A quay has been recently built here, and 

 is expected to be of some benefit to the place ; but, with a numerous population, 



The reader will find a detailed account of Ben Nevis in the " Guide to the Highlands," and New 

 Statistical account. It may be said, without exaggeration, that every point of the horizon is at least one 

 hundred and twenty miles removed from the spectator. On the north-east side is a terrrific precipice, 

 commencing at the summit, and descending to a depth of not less than one thousand five hundred feet 

 perpendicular. 



