GLEN*. CALEDONIAN CANAL. 37 



of history, invite the traveller to its recesses, and furnish ample materials 

 for reflection and improvement. The barren heath displays on its breast the 

 imperishable records of strife; the frowning rock, its once impregnable fastness; 

 the forest, its druidical altars; the heath, its cairns; and the softer features of 

 the landscape, its well-stocked folds, thriving hamlets, and cultivated farms. 

 Lordly mansions, embosomed in their picturesque domains ; villas and country 

 seats, that have rapidly multiplied within the last twenty years ; villages, that 

 have risen into towns, and towns that far outstep their former limits, bear 

 flattering testimony to the progress of industry, and the extension of those 

 natural resources which form the great mine of domestic wealth. 



This magnificent county is bounded on the north by Ross-shire, and part of 

 the Moray Frith ; on the east by the shires of Elgin, Moray, and Aberdeen ; 

 on the south by Perth and Argyll ; and on the west by the Atlantic Ocean. 

 It comprehends a variety of districts ; a considerable portion of the Hebrides, 

 with the smaller islands sprinkled along the coast ; and, exclusive of these, 

 presents a territory of more than ninety miles in length, by nearly fifty in 

 breadth. The great distinguishing feature of this county is, its natural division 

 into two parts, by what is called the Great Glen, or Valley of Albyn, which 

 runs from its north-western extremity to that on the north-east a direction 

 nearly parallel with that of the Grampians. This immense fissure, opening 

 between two distinct chains of lofty mountains, and occupied by a succession of 

 lakes, suggested the great national undertaking of the Caledonian Canal, which 

 now connects the Atlantic with the German Ocean.* 



To the tourist, this canal presents the greatest facilities for an extensive survey 

 of those romantic regions from which he was formerly debarred by the imperfect 

 state of the roads, or could only reach by a very circuitous route. The country 

 through which it passes is often of the most striking and varied character 

 alternately presenting all the gradations of lake and mountain scenery, from 

 the cultivated farm to the cloud-capt palaces of Nature, and the wild magnificence 

 with which she has invested the Celtic Alps. The fare by the weekly steam boats, 

 which perform the trip between Inverness and Glasgow in forty hours, or less, 

 is only twenty-five shillings ; while to the weak or invalid traveller, the comfort 



The survey was made by Messrs. Telford and Jessop, civil engineers, in 1S03, and the following year ; 

 and after nearly twenty years' labour, and an enormous expenditure, the canal was finally opened in 

 October, 1822. A splendid fete given on board the steam vessel with which the late. Charles Grant, Esq., 

 the county member, and his friends, proceeded from sea to sea, a distance of sixty miles commemorated 

 thf event. From that time a regular communication has been kept up between Inverness, Glasgow, and 

 ihe west coast, by means of steam boats, which have opened a new source of convenience and emolument 

 to those engaged in foreign and domestic trade. For particulars, see ANDERSON'S " Highlands," pp. 231-9. 



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