1888-89.] Khitail and Glenelg, zvith Notices of the Brocks. 233 



contour is continued to the summits of the ranges whose 

 bases they form. Here and there along the coast are little 

 townships scattered in promiscuous order, or rather want of 

 order, as if they had been dropped at haphazard from the 

 heavens, or kicked into position by a giant foot that might 

 have adorned the person of Fingal or some other equally 

 powerful member of his phantom fraternity ; and inter- 

 mingling with these are trees of varied kinds, clinging tena- 

 ciously to the clefts in the rocks wherever foothold is at- 

 tainable. 



In a mountainous region like this, the effects of light and 

 shade, cloud and sunshine, rain and mist, constantly transform 

 the picture, and therein lies its greatest attraction. At one 

 moment you have a brilliant blink of sunshine that burnishes 

 the surface of the water, and plainly reveals eveiy gully and 

 fissure, but at the same time dwarfs the height of the moun- 

 tains : presently a cloud creeps slowly across the sky, darken- 

 ing the landscape while increasing its solemnity, — the hills 

 seem vaster, the valleys deeper and more awesome, and before 

 the storm fairly bursts and obliterates every outline, the pre- 

 vailing stillness is intensified, so that every sound forces itself 

 on the ear with greater prominence. The rustling of the leaves 

 on the trees, or the sighing of the brawling burns that run 

 down the distant glens, unheeded before, suddenly claim our 

 attention by contrast with the death-like silence that precedes 

 the blast. When the squall swoops down in real earnest and 

 churns the sea into foam, you can see the mist driving along 

 the hill-face at a furious rate, obscuring the view entirely, 

 until some cross - current of wind, tearing down a gorge, 

 scatters it for the time being, and unmasks the rocks that, 

 blackened by the wet, look more gigantic and grim propor- 

 tionately to the short time they are visible. In late autumn 

 such atmospheric vagaries can be witnessed a dozen times 

 a-day, but in many instances the brilliancy of the concluding 

 sunset more than compensates for the disturbed state of the 

 elements. To attempt a description of a gorgeous West 

 Highland autumnal sunset, with its rapid change of colours 

 and varied phases, is about as hopeless a task as converting 

 a Jew, and I for one would not insult you by trying. My 

 advice is to go and make acquaintance with one, and you will 



