30 ON THE PARALLEL HOADS 



The lower valley of Glen Roy stretches in a N. E. direction, 

 from the junction of its river with the Spean, to a point at the 

 distance of about nine miles, where it is terminated by a rock, 

 having a dry craggy hollow on its north side, and a deep ra- 

 vine, containing the river, on the south, so that it may almost 

 be said to be isolated from the higher rocks flanking the glen, 

 between which it extends across. The country above this 

 point, being of a different character, may be called Ujjper 

 Glen Roy. Though not quite so narrow and confined as Glen 

 Gluoy, yet the green mountains of Lower Glen Roy are as 

 high, and rise with acclivities, which are in general fully as 

 steep as those of the former valley ; and throughout the great- 

 er part of its extent there is not much more space in the bot- 

 tom than is sufficient for the bed of the stream. Having wound 

 over the natural boundary dividing Lower from Upper Glen 

 Roy, and proceeding to trace the stream of the Roy upwards, 

 the country is found to open out into a wider and higher valley, 

 expanding, as it stretches eastward, the hills apparently sinking 

 in elevation, as the level of the bottom rises. Into this the 

 waters of the Roy enter, by two several branches, from the 

 sloping hills which bound it. At a point about three or four 

 miles above the isolated rock, the valley becomes extremely 

 flat. It is skirted on the north by a low rocky ridge, which, as 

 it loses itself in the bottom of the plain, offers no interrup- 

 tion to the very gradually, nay, almost imperceptibly rising le- 

 vel, of the mossy ground stretching to the Loch of Spey, the 

 source of the river of that name. From this point, which is the 

 summit level, there is a gentle fall of the country, by the course 

 of the Spey, towards Garvamore. Returning downwards to the 

 head of Lower Glen Roy, we find that the river forces its way, 

 with great fury and precipitation, through the ravine, (marked in 



the 



