1814-1840 SCENES IN ARRAN 23 



half conceal their giant peaks ; or in the gloom of an 

 autumn evening, when the descending clouds, urged 

 onwards by the blast, flit swiftly across the mountain 

 sides, while ever and anon their gloomy shoulders 

 loom largely through the rolling masses, and seem to 

 the beholder to double their vast proportions ; or in 

 the mellow light of a summer sunset, when the shadows 

 of the hills fall far athwart the landscape, and the 

 distant Atlantic gleams brightly in the slanting rays of 

 the setting sun ; while, as he sinks below the horizon, 

 it is difficult to distinguish the lofty summits of Jura 

 and the Isles from the gorgeous masses of clouds 

 among which he disappears.' 



In the midst of these impressive scenes, while 

 enjoying to the full their picturesque beauty, Ramsay's 

 eye was ever keenly sensitive to the geological lessons 

 so vividly taught by them. Lingering among the 

 granite precipices, and ' surrounded by the grey peaks 

 of the solemn hills,' the observer reflects that these 

 colossal features in the scenery, notwithstanding ' all 

 their appearance of majesty and power, are day by day 

 slowly crumbling into dust. Even now the landscape 

 on which he mutely gazes is imperceptibly yielding to 

 the never-dying principle of change ; and the time will 

 come when, with all its varied features, it shall have 

 passed away, and left no trace behind.' 



The young geologist had an eye, too, for the little 

 touches of human pathos which so often lighten up the 

 sombreness of a Highland scene. As he comes down 

 North Glen Sannox, once a populous valley, but in 

 his day, as it is still, almost uninhabited, he contrasts 

 its very different conditions. He marks how ' green 

 spots, clothed with a close-cropped herbage, and still 

 bearing witness to the marks of the plough, surround 



