392 'MAN OF SCIENCE. 



lime-kiln burning on the hill-side and would fain have 

 examined the stone, a primary limestone, certainly, 

 perhaps a marble, but had no opportunity. In pass- 

 ing through Loch Oich, the centre of the canal with re- 

 spect to level, for then the descent commences on both 

 sides, we had a striking though somewhat exaggerated 

 specimen of the very different climates of the east and 

 west coasts. On looking through the valley towards the 

 east we saw in a clear atmosphere a series of horizontal 

 clouds, rising the one beyond the other, like level beams 

 in a roof seen in perspective, and the mountains clear 

 and well-defined, and coloured according to their dis- 

 tances. In looking towards the west we saw hills shorn 

 of their tops by the descending fogs, a blue haze resting 

 on the lower grounds, and a turbid and broken sky 

 overhead. The hills, however, improve mightily in their 

 vegetation. The heath well-nigh disappears, and fine 

 rank grass covers their sides instead. But how sadly 

 they are scarred with ravines, the conduit pipes by 

 which the upper fogs empty themselves in water into 

 the lakes. This difference between the vegetation of the 

 opposite coasts becomes very marked at Glengarry, when 

 for the brown sterility of many of the Loch Ness hills 

 we have mountains green to their summits, and woods of 

 luxuriant foliage. The old ruined tower of the chieftain 

 looks out with "imposing effect on the lake from a cluster 

 of trees. It does sound somewhat ridiculous that the 

 late Glengarry should have squandered so much money 

 in imitating the old highland chieftains who had none, 

 that now neither the lands nor the tower of the ancestors 

 of whom he was so vain belong to his son. He was so 

 proud of his family, that he ruined it. 



' Isn't it provoking that I can't see Ben Nevis ? 

 Twice have I passed him now, and each time has he 



