THE PARALLEL ROADS OF GLEN ROY 231 



portion which had been thoroughly examined. Hence my 

 desire to see the roads once more before venturing to talk 

 to you about them. The Easter holidays of 1876 were to 

 be devoted to this purpose; but at the last moment a tele- 

 gram from Roy Bridge informed me that the roads were 

 snowed up. Finding books and memories poor substitutes 

 for the flavor of facts, I resolved subsequently to make 

 another effort to see the roads. Accordingly last Thurs- 

 day fortnight, after lecturing here, I packed up, and started 

 (not this time alone) for the North. Next day at noon 

 my wife and I found ourselves at Dalwhinnie, whence a 

 drive of some five- and -thirty miles brought us to the ex- 

 cellent hostlery of Mr. Macintosh, at the mouth of Glen 

 Roy. 



We might have found the hills covered with mist, 

 which would, have wholly defeated us; but Nature was 

 good-natured, and we had two successful working days 

 among the hills. Guided by the excellent ordnance map 

 of the region, on the Saturday morning we went up the 

 glen, and on reaching the stream called Allt Bhreac 

 Achaidh faced the hills to the west. At the watershed 

 between Glen Roy and Glen Fintaig we bore northward, 

 struck the ridge above Glen Gluoy, and came in view of 

 its road, which we persistently followed as long as it con- 

 tinued visible. It is a feature of all the roads that they 

 vanish before reaching the cols over which fell the waters 

 of the lakes which formed them. One reason doubtless 

 is that at their upper ends the lakes were shallow, and 

 incompetent on this account to raise wavelets of any 

 strength to act upon the mountain drift. A second rea- 

 son is that they were land-locked in the higher portions 

 and protected from the southwesterly winds, the stillness 



