Flood in the Highlands. 283 



dary of the Mill Island, thus covering the whole of that beau- 

 tiful spot, except where two I'ocky wooded knolls, and the Ot- 

 ter's Rock beyond them, appeared from its eastern side. The 

 temple was indeed gone, as well as its bridges, and four other 

 rustic bridges in the island. Already its tall ornamental trees 

 had begun to yield, one by one, to the pressure and undermin- 

 ing of the watei", and to the shocks they received from the beams 

 of the Dunphail wooden bridges. The noise was a distinct 

 combination of two kinds of sound ; one, an uniformly conti- 

 nued roar, the other like rapidly repeated discharges of many 

 cannons at once. The first of these proceeded from the vio- 

 lence of the water; the other, which was heard through it, and, 

 as it were, muffled by it, came from the enormous stones which 

 the stream was hurling over its uneven bed of rock. Above all 

 this was heard the fiend-like shriek of the wind, yeUing as if the 

 demon of desolation bad been riding upon its blast. Tlie leaves 

 of the trees Avere stript off and whirled into the air, and their 

 thick boughs and stems were bending and cracking beneath the 

 tempest, and groaning like terrified creatures, impatient to 

 escape from the coils of the watery serpent. There was some- 

 thing heart-sickening in the aspect of the atmosphere. The 

 rain was descending in sheets, not in drops, and there was a pe- 

 culiar and indescribable lurid, or rather bronze-like hue, that 

 pervaded the whole face of nature, as if poison had been abroad 

 in the air. The flood went on augmenting every moment, and 

 it became difficult to resist the idea of the recurrence of a gene- 

 ral deluge. We could not prevent ourselves from following it 

 out, and we fancied the waters going on rising, till first the 

 houses, and then the hills of the glen, where we had so long 

 happily lived, should be covered ; and all this in spite of our 

 reason, which was continually prompting us to stifle such dreams. 

 But, indeed, even reason was listened to with doubt, where we 

 saw before our eyes what was so far beyond any thing that ex- 

 perience had ever taught us to believe possible." 



We ascended from Quoich Water, and clambered and walked 

 over a dreary and stony heath-covered wilderness, to tlie road 

 leading tolnvercald. The prevailing rock was gneiss, often'alter- 

 nating with quartz, and in which the strata were still dipping to 

 the N W. The road down to the Dee opposite to Castleton,was 



t2 



