THE PEOPLE. 61 



country, none struck me more than the wonderfully 

 diversified shape and colour of the mountains. 



Some are sharp, like needles, others form regular cones, 

 others stand out in long splintered ridges, " bitten into 

 barrenness by the hunger of the north wind," or tor- 

 mented into great rough masses of tumbled rock, and 

 so present an infinite variety of beautiful objects in the 

 landscape. 



The colouring, too, especially in the morning and even- 

 ing, is really extraordinary. Not only are the varieties 

 of shade great, bat they are most brilliant and intense: 

 deep brown and black, relieved by many degrees of green 

 and grey, with dashes of purple, orange, and even rose 

 and red. These, combined for the most part in the most 

 harmonious hues, and reflected by an atmosphere of the 

 most dazzling clearness, far surpass the artist's power of 

 imitation. 



Some of the mountain masses rise dark and desolate 

 without soil or trace of vegetation. They look like great 

 beams of iron binding the land together. Others spring, 

 a glorious glittering pyramid of snow and ice, from the 

 blue sea or the green grassy plain. Yet, with all this- 

 and we intensely enjoyed it how inexpressibly we 

 admired our own dear land, when, after seeing so much 

 barren sterility, we found ourselves travelling through the 

 harvest fields of Aberdeenshire, and saw " the swathes of 

 its corn glowing and burning from field to field," and 

 looked into the peaceful homesteads and orchards, full to 

 overflowing with the generous fruits of the earth, and saw 



