u8 LANDSCAPE AND LITERATURE 



half-hidden hills, the moaning and shrieking of the 

 storm come like sounds from another world. We 

 seem to hear the tread, and almost to see the forms, 

 of the ghosts of the Ossianic heroes, 



'Chasing spectre-boars of mist 

 On wings of great winds on the cairn. 

 When bursts the cloud in Cona of the glens, 

 A thousand spirits wildly shriek 

 On the waste wind that sweeps around the cairn.' 



Nor is the turmoil of the tempest on the sea less 

 vividly depicted. We are shown the 



'Waves surging onward in mist, 

 When their crests are seen in foam 

 Over smoke and haze widespread.' 



In the midst of the gloom we descry a shore-stack 

 against which the ocean 



'Dashes the force of billows cold; 

 White spray is high around its throat, 

 And cairns resound on the heathery steep.' 



With these pictures of tumult on land and sea, there 

 come glimpses of those cherished interludes of bright 

 sunshine, when the western hills and firths are seen at 

 their loveliest. But whether radiant or gloomy the land- 

 scape is in unison with the human emotion described — 



'Pleasing the tale of the time which has gone; 

 Soothing as noiseless dew of morning mild, 

 On the brake and knoll of roes, 

 When slowly rises the sun 

 On the silent flank of hoary Bens — 

 The loch, unruffled, far away, 

 Calm and blue on the floor of the glens.' 1 



1 Fingal, iii. 3. 



