the Upper Districts of Aberdeenshire. |3 



iiave rudely walled up, so as to convert it into a cave capable of 

 containing about twenty persons. As usual, the largest blocks 

 have rolled to the greatest distance. 



> On the left hand, as one looks down the lake, is a range of lofty 

 precipices, with steep slopes at their base, covered by debris. 

 These precipices form part of the Cairngorm group, which is, pro- 

 perly speaking, a branch of the Ben-na-muic-dui group. Th§ 

 other side is less precipitous, but of the same general character^ 

 The lake, which is apparently two miles long, is narrow. Its wa-. 

 ters are exceedingly clear, and of a greenish-blue colour. No ve- 

 getation is seen in it, but it is said to contain a few small trouts. , 

 "On the south-western side of Ben-na-muic-dui, separated in part 

 hy a steep and narrow valley, is a ridge of less elevated but still 

 lofty mountains, of which the highest bears the name of Cairn-» 

 gorm. This ridge terminates to the eastward in a semicircular 

 range of precipices, several hundred feet high, partially inclosing 

 Loch Etagan, which has the same transparency and colour as the 

 other lakes. It contains few trouts and no vegetation. I looked 

 for mollusca in these lakes, but found no traces of them. The bot- 

 tom consists of stones anjd sand, as clear and bright as those of the 

 surrounding wastes. The water of all the rills is also exceedingly 

 clear. 



The Brae-raich mountains form a group to the north and nortji- 

 east of Ben-na-muic-dui, and although I have only viewed them 

 from the latter mountain, I may safely say that they are of the 

 same general character. 



'. Ben-na-buird Group. — Ben-na-buird and the neighbouring 

 mountains, Meal-teanail and Ben-avin, consist of granite precisely 

 similar to that of Ben-na-muic-dui. The precipice on the north- 

 east side of Ben-na-buird is apparently about a mile in length, arid 

 in some places nearly seven hundred feet high. It forms a corry, 

 having at its base a circular lake named the Duloch, (Black lake,) 

 the water of which is of a deep blue colour. Some parts of the 

 cliff are magnificent. Enormous blocks have fallen from it, some 

 of them apparently of late years ; and I was informed by a person 

 accustomed to visit these mountains, that huge masses sometimes 

 come down in winter. The precipice winds round" the head of^^i 

 long glen, and becoming less abrupt, forms part of the southern 

 «ide of Meal-teanail, a ridge of the same mass. The summit of 

 Ben-na-buird is comparatively flat, whence its name, which, ren- 

 dered into English, is Table Mountain. 



The summit of Ben-Avin is remarkable for the protuberances 

 which appear upon it. Several of these protuberances are also seen 

 upon other mountains of these groups. They consist of granite 

 much disintegrated, forming tabular masses, intersected perpendi- 

 cularly by fissures, and are evidently portions of the mass of the 

 mountain, which have either originally protruded beyond the sur* 

 face, or have resisted disintegration. 



