612 



SCOTLAND. 



Statistic". 

 Geography, 



Distribu- 

 tion of the 

 mountains 

 in the 

 Highland 

 "Utitrscts,. . 



But the middle district is K as we remarked, rendered 

 occasionally hilly by ridges and distinct elevation?. 

 One of the chief of these is the great Sidlaw range, 

 which, commencing about Arbroath, stretches away to 

 Perth, wh,ere it may be conceived to be continued in the 

 Ochil?, and subsequently in the Carapsie hills, till that 

 unites at Dunbarton to the mountains of the High- 

 lands. The northern shore of Fife may be considered 

 a portion of this ridge, and the remainder of that county 

 is irregularly undulated by eminences, of, which the 

 Lomonds are the most remarkable. Similar scattered 

 elevations and irregularities are found in the opener 

 tract which, commencing at Dunbar, terminates at 

 Greenock, or may be supposed continued round by the 

 west coast to the Mull of Galloway. A thousand feet 

 may be taken as an average of the greatest altitudes of 

 these hill?. 



Distribution of the Mountains in the Highland District* 



Though t'e best maps, and Mr. Arrowsmith's among 

 others, represent the Highland, or north-western moun- 

 tains, as disposed in ridges, and though chains are fa- 

 miliarly spoken of, that is not the character of the coun- 

 try. It must rather be considered an irregular mass of 

 mountains, a great table land of hills thrown together 

 without any determinate or predominant disposition. 



The only thing which could give any colour to this 

 imaginary fact, is the disposition of the land on the 

 sides of the great Caledonian valley, the Glenmore na 

 Albin ; but even here the boundaries cannot be consi- 

 dered as mountain chains or ridges. The ridges, which 

 are represented as attending the course of the Find- 

 horn, that of the Spey, and that of the Doe, are almost 

 equally fictitious, though certain small portions in va- 

 rious parts of the country may claim, this denomina- 

 tion. 



Such riclges will be found, sometimes attending the 

 course of a river, more frequently the valley of a lake. 

 Thus Loch Earn may be conceived to lie between 

 two ridges, and the same might be thought of Loch 

 Tay, Loch Tumel, Loch Ericht, and others, though, 

 when the ground is itself examined, the exceptions 

 will be found such as so deprive most of the apparent 

 chains of any real claims to this denomination. 



It will be seen also, that the apparent ridges do not 

 follow the courses of the rocks themselves, or the bear- 

 ings of the stratification. The general tendency of this, 

 with no essential exceptions, is on lines which may 

 be conceived to vary from the north-east to the north 

 north-east. But even the apparent ridges do not all 

 follow this course, presenting very various tendencies. 



The courses of the vallies which contain the greater 

 lakes may here be taken as examples, since it is by 

 these that the apparent ridges are best indicated. Thus 

 Loch Long tends to the north north east, while Loch 

 Lomond in its immediate vicinity is directed consider- 

 ably to the westward of north ; and the course of Loch 

 Cateran, not far off', is not much to the northward of 

 west. Of the four lakes, Loch Earn, Loch Tay, Loch 

 Ilannoch, and Loch Ericht, all lying on the same me- 

 ridian nearly, and at inconsiderable distances from each 

 other, the southernmost, Loch Earn, lies nearly east 

 and west. The course of Loch Tay, the next, is north- 

 east, and that of Loch Rannoch is due east. And here, 

 in particular, the shape of the high land is strongly 

 contrasted to the supposed north-easterly bearing; as 

 this valley may be said to commence in the sea at Loch 

 Leven, stretching across the moor of Rannoch so as to 

 that lake, and also Loch Tumel, and not termi- 



nating till it is cut off by the north and south valley 

 which conducts the Tumel into the Tay. The last of 

 these lakes, Loch Ericht, holds a north north-east 

 course, parallel to the Glenmore na Albin. 



This confusion is even more apparent, if we examine 

 from Loch Lomond we -.ward. The two branches of 

 Loch Long, one of which forms Loch Gojl, have dif- 

 ferent tendencies ; and Loch Eck is nearly at right 

 angles to Loch Fyne, to which it approximates. The 

 great ridge of Cruachan, which conducts at its foot the 

 exit of the Awe, is at right angles to those which bound 

 Loch Awe, as -well as to Loch Etive ; and the course 

 of Loch Etive itself is discordant. 



If we examine the sea lochs of the west, and the 

 islands, the same uncertainty of position will be appa- 

 rent, though, to the southward, the tendency is very 

 regular, and according to the courses of the stratification. 

 Thus the lochs from Loch Tarbet to Loch Craignish 

 hold an accurate north-easterly course; but after that 

 these positions become uncertain and contradictory. 

 The first division of Loch Etive tends due east, and so 

 does the general course of Loch Sunart. The same 

 may be said of Loch Morrer and Loch Neyish ; while the 

 first branch of Loch Hourn lies to the south-east, as 

 does Loch Duich. Here also the intricacy of the ridges 

 is very striking, because Loch Long, which branches 

 from this, has a course of somewhat more than a right 

 angle from it. At Loch Torrid on, the ridges of hills, 

 and the consequent direction of this very deep inlet, is 

 due east ; and after this the positions become almost 

 invariably the exact reverse of the course of the strata 

 and of that tendency which is so strongly marked by 

 the Glenmore na Albin. Loch Maree, both the Lock 

 Brooms, Loch Assynt, Loch More, Loch Inchard, and 

 all the accompanying smaller fresh water lakes and in- 

 lets, tend invariably to the south-east, and such is also 

 the very distinct courses of the ridges,- as far as they 

 hold any courses. 



This reverse tendency of the country is peculiarly 

 marked in that immense though somewhat intricate 

 valley, which crosses the whole of Sutherland, from 

 the western to the eastern sea. This commences west- 

 ward at Loch Laxford, and holding its course through 

 Loch More, Loch Mepkland, and Loch Shin, termin- 

 nates in the eastern sea at the firth of Dornoch, form- 

 ing a total length of more than eighty miles, and in a 

 south-east direction. Thus it crosses the course of the 

 great Caledonian valley at right angles; while it pos- 

 sesses about the same length, and is very nearly on a 

 similar level throughout ; the altitude which separates 

 the very few waters that run west, being very little 

 elevated above that which distributes the great body 

 of water eastward. 



Here, could it be of any use, is afforded a certain 

 facility for a water communication through Scotland ; 

 the quantity of land to be traversed being very small 

 in proportion to the great extent of navigable water, 

 or of land that, under other circumstances, which can 

 never occur, might be rendered navigable. 



We need only further remark, respecting this part 

 of the mainland, that even in the vicinity of this pro- 

 longed valley, the courses of the ridges which deter- 

 mine Loch Evibol, the lochs of Tongue, and of Duir- 

 ness, and the courses of the Naver and the Hallodale, 

 are north. 



Such is the irregularity of distribution %vhich marks - 

 the mountains of the Highland?, as determined by the 

 courses of the lakes and some of the greater valleys. 

 But those of the rivers, while, they mark the courses 



Statistics; 



