136 THE MOUNTAIN. 



we had enjoyed from the top of Ben Lomond the 

 day before made us anxious to survey, as soon as 

 possible, the scenery which we knew awaited us 

 when we reached our destination. We found a 

 delightful resting-place when we had gained the 

 summit. The mountain does not terminate in a 

 single peak, but in two tops of nearly equal eleva- 

 tion, connected by a level surface, composed prin- 

 cipally of long soft moss, intermixed with a few 

 kinds of grass and lichen. Here we stretched at 

 length, and while we ate our repast, consisting of 

 sandwiches and mountain-sorrel, contemplated a 

 prospect which I will endeavour to describe. 



Just opposite, and apparently near enough to be 

 touched, rose piles of mountains of every variety 

 of tint and shadow, from the white snow, which 

 lay in patches near their summits, to the darkest 

 of all possible greys. As far as the eye could 

 reach, they towered up, tier behind tier, till they 

 were lost in the hazy distance. About midway 

 between us and the horizon we descried a small 

 portion of the Clyde ; two thousand feet beneath 

 us lay a mountain tame, Loch Sloy, fed by two 

 little rivers, which, being in a line between us and 

 the sun, looked like threads of burnished silver. 

 Beneath us, on the left, rose another summit of 

 Ben Voirlich, shutting out from our sight a part 

 of Loch Lomond, but allowing us a full view of 



. . . " All the fairy crowds 

 Of islands, which together lie 

 As quietly as spots of sky 

 Among the evening clouds." 



To the right appeared another shoulder of Ben 

 Voirlich, nearly equal in height with our position, 



