SCOTTISH LOWLANDS 89 



mantle of vegetation than is seen among the English 

 lowlands. The surrounding uplands and hills, for the 

 most part bare of trees, are clothed with pasture, save 

 where they support a covering of heathy herbage or 

 dark peat-moss. The lower grounds have in large 

 measure been brought under cultivation, but still retain 

 tracts of moorland, haunted by lapwing and curlew. 

 Though the ancient natural wood has mostly dis- 

 appeared, hard-wood trees are now abundant, while 

 sombre plantations of fir give a northern character 

 to the landscapes. 



But perhaps the feature in these Scottish lowlands 

 which more particularly deserves notice here, is the 

 contrast to be found between their streams and those 

 of south-eastern England. Owing to the uneven forms 

 and steeper slopes of the ground, the drainage runs off 

 rapidly to the sea. The brooks are full of motion, as 

 they tumble over waterfalls, plunge through rocky 

 ravines, and sweep round the boulders that cumber 

 their channels. They furnish, moreover, countless 

 dells and dingles where the native copsewoods find 

 their surest shelter. There the gorse and the sloe 

 come earliest into bloom, and the wild flowers linger 

 longest. There too the birds make their chief home. 

 These strips of wild nature, winding through cultivated 

 field or bare moor, from the hills to the sea, offer in 

 summer scenes of perfect repose. But they furnish 

 too, from time to time, pictures of tumult and uproar, 

 when rain-clouds have burst upon the uplands, and the 

 streams come down in heavy flood, pouring through 

 the glens with a din that can be heard from far. 



Brooks and rivers have always had a fascination for 



