SCOTLAND. 



: 



the Earl of Seafield, to whom it now belongs. 

 Glen Urquhart, which recedes behind Urquhart 

 Castle, is a beautiful Highland vale. The con- 

 spicuous mountain, Mealfouruounie (Hill of the 

 Cold Tarn), which is 2284 feet in height, here 

 begins to raise its huge bulk above the banks of 

 the loch. Mealfourvounie stands so prominently 

 above the neighbouring hills, that it is not only 

 singled out by the eye at Inverness, but is the 

 first landmark seen on entering the Moray Firth, 

 at the distance of a hundred miles. 



The road along the south side of Loch Ness, 

 though it presents numberless fine views, is en- 

 livened by few traces of man's presence. The 

 paucity of houses gives a sort of distinction to the 

 inn named General's Hut, nearly 18 miles from 

 Inverness, originally the residence of General 

 Wade, while superintending the formation of his 

 roads. Little more than a mile farther on, a 

 recess or chasm in the hill by the side of the lake 

 utains the celebrated Fall of Foyers. 

 A few miles farther on, Glenmoriston, a valley 

 11 of romantic scenery, opens upon the north- 

 west bank of Loch Ness. At the distance of 

 thirty-two miles from Inverness, the traveller 

 comes on Fort- Augustus, situated in a pleasant 

 opening amongst the hills, at the termination of 

 Loch Ness. It was erected in 1730, as an addi- 

 tion to the means previously existing for the 

 control of the turbulent children of the mountains. 

 Its purposes being long since accomplished, it 

 has for many years been only occupied by a few 

 artillerymen. From Fort-Augustus, the cut of 

 the canal is resumed, and several locks are 

 ascended ; five miles bring it to Loch Oich, the 

 smallest of the chain of lakes. The scenery is 

 here finer than at any other part of the Great 

 len. 



The next and last loch is Loch Lochy, the hills 

 ivironing which are the most wild and stupen- 

 dous of all in the glen. The summit-level of the 

 canal is between Loch Oich and Loch Lochy, 

 being 90 feet above the ordinary high-water mark 

 at Fort-William, and 94 above that at Inverness 

 a difference to be accounted for by the pressure 

 of the Atlantic on the west shores of Scotland. 

 The canal, after leaving this loch, descends in a 

 precipitous series of locks, called Neptune's Stair- 

 case, into Loch Eil, a continuation of Loch Linnhe, 

 the arm of the sea formerly mentioned. 



At this point, the glen is more spacious than 

 anywhere else ; it is, however, the spaciousness 

 of a moor. The River Lochy, which issues from 

 the lake of the same name, pours its voluminous 

 and impetuous flood towards Loch Eil on the left ; 

 and beyond it Ben Nevis is seen to rear his enor- 

 mous head, with the vale of Glen Nevis withdraw- 

 ing from his mighty side into the solitudes of 

 Lochaber. At the distance of little more than a 

 mile is the town of Fort- William, so called from 

 a fortress of the same name, built for the repres- 

 sion of Highland turbulence, and now nearly dis- 

 used. 



A cluster of glens to the south of the Great 

 Glen is remarkable for a natural phenomenon, 

 usually called the Parallel Roads of Glenroy, such 

 being the name of the vale in which the wonder 

 is most conspicuously marked. It consists of a 

 set of terraces, in most places three in number, 

 extending along both sides of these vales for many 

 miles, the uppermost 82 feet above the second, 



which, again, is 212 feet above the first The 

 common people represent these terraces as roads 

 formed at the command of Fingal, an early hero, 

 for his convenience in hunting ; but they are in 

 reality ancient beaches of inland seas phenomena 

 with which modern geologists are familar. 



Western Islands. 



The Western Islands are generally bleak and 

 rugged in surface, and occupied by a very poor 

 class of tenantry. It is not possible here to pre- 

 sent a particular description of any except the 

 isle of Staffa, so remarkable for its basaltic 

 structure. It is about i mile in circumference, 

 and bears no human habitation, its only useful 

 tenants being a small herd of black-cattle. At 

 the point of greatest elevation, towards the south- 

 west, this island is 144 feet high. On the north- 

 east it presents a face of somewhat less height,, 

 composed of basaltic columns, and penetrated by 

 several caves of various sizes, into which the sea 

 occasionally breaks with the report of thunder. 

 This face, according to Dr Macculloch, is formed 

 of three distinct beds of rock, of unequal thick- 

 ness, inclined towards the east in an angle of 

 about 9 degrees : the lowest is a rude trap tufa : 

 the middle one is divided into columns placed 

 vertically to the planes of the lowest bed ; and 

 the uppermost is an irregular mixture of small 

 columns and shapeless rock the whole beinf 

 partially covered by a fine verdure. The central 

 columnar part having in some places given way r 

 is the occasion of the numerous caves by which 

 the island seems perforated. 



At the north-east point of the island, the dip- 

 ping of the rocks is so low as to afford a safe 

 landing-place at any time of the tide. Proceed- 

 ing thence, the visitor is conducted along the 

 north-east face, and is introduced to the Clam- 

 shell (Scallop) Cave, where a curious confusion 

 in the columnar structure is observable. The 

 columns on one side are bent, so as to form, 

 a series of ribs, not unlike the inside view 

 of the timbers of a ship ; while the opposite 

 wall is formed by the ends of columns, bearing 

 a general resemblance to the surface of a honey- 

 comb. This cave is 30 feet in height, and 16 or 

 1 8 in breadth at the entrance ; its length being 

 130 feet, and the breadth contracting to the ter- 

 mination. Next occurs the noted rock, Buachaille 

 the Herdsman a conoidal pile of columns, 

 about 30 feet high, lying on a bed of curved 

 horizontal ones, visible only at low-water. There 

 is here an extensive surface, reseinbling that of 

 the Giant's Causeway, and composed of the 

 broken ends of pillars once continuous to the top 

 of the cliff. The colonnade is now for some 

 distance upright and very grand, till the visitor 

 reaches the Uaimh Binn (Musical Cave), usually 

 called Fingal's Cave, by far the most impressive 

 and interesting object in the island. It opens from 

 the sea with a breadth of 42 feet, a height of 66 

 feet above the water at mean tide, the pillar on 

 one side being 36 feet high, and that on the other 

 1 8. The depth of the recess is 227 feet, and the 

 breadth at the inner termination 22. The sides 

 within are columnar throughout ; the columns 

 being broken and grouped in many different ways r 

 so as to catch a variety of direct and reflected 

 tints, mixed with secondary shadows and deep 

 invisible recesses. As the sea never ebbs entirely 



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