276 Walk from Aberdeen 



fir wood, we gained the open brow of the mountain, from whence 

 we ascended with more ease and less annoyance to the summit. 

 The view from this elevated point is striking and extensive. In 

 one direction our view extended to the sea at Aberdeen ; in an- 

 other the vast granite group of Cairngorm, with its well-known 

 summits, viz. Bin-na-muick-dui, Cairngorm, Bin-na-buird, Bin 

 Aven, rose before us in massive magnificence : to the south, in 

 the distance, rose the trap-hill named Dundee Law, the trap 

 cones of the Lommonds in Fife shire, and the beautiful por- 

 phyry range of the Pentlands near Edinburgh ; and, towards 

 the west, the wild and rugged alpine country of Athole and Ba- 

 denoch added to the interest of this varied scene. Around the 

 mountain, we observed several frightful corics, bounded by 

 dreadfully rugged pi'ecipices. We descended into one of them 

 in order to examine the snow which it contained, — snow which 

 remains all the year round. The mass of snow was thirty yards 

 square, several feet thick ; at the surface its texture was loose, 

 but below was hard and composed of granular concretions, and 

 liad much of the glacier character. We met with parlies of 

 topaz diggers in search of the topaz, beryl, and rock-crystal, 

 which occur in this and other granite mountains of the district, 

 in the granite, either in drusy cavities or as disseminated crystals. 

 The topaz diggers find the gems only in the alluvium, or broken 

 granite, and generally in that covering the bottoms of cories, or 

 spread round the foot of the higher granite summits*. It is 

 interesting to observe the various modes of weathering of the 

 granite here and in other parts of the granite mountains of this 

 district. Some kinds, on exposure to the air, display the glo- 

 bular, others the columnar, and frequently the great tabular 

 concretions exhibit a tendency to the slaty arrangement. All of 

 them break down in a longer or shorter time into gravels, sands, 

 and clays. The phenomena exhibited during the weathering of 



• Those, Dr Maeknight remarks, who employ themselves in searching for 

 the gems, pay the proprietors a small rent for the liberty of searching. The 

 part of the Cairngorm group which lies to the east, and is called Ben-Aven, 

 is at present reckoned the most productive, yielding the proprietor about 

 Li. 150 or L. 200 a-year. The field is said now to be nearly exhausted.— 

 Vide Wernerian Memoirs, vol. iii. pp. 117, H8. 



