196 NORTHERN MEMOIRS. 



with spacious buildings, rivited into rocks, and 

 cemented with stone. 



Theoph. Must we pass through Murryland, 

 or take it in our way when returning from Ross ? 



Arn. We shall only pass by it now, to de- 

 scribe the country of Reven in Badanoah, that's 

 totally beleaguer'd and besieged with bogs, whose 

 ruinous decays are unworthy our discourse ; nor 

 are her fields so fertil as those in Feneven, yet 

 are her valleys surrounded with rivulets, and 

 every rivulet replenished with trout ; beautified 

 and adorned with stately fir woods, that shade 

 the earth from the scorching sun, and shelters 

 man and horse in impetuous rains and storms ; 

 where nature, but not the native, is generous 

 and prodigal in all her entertainments. 



T/ieopb. What new inviting object have we 

 now discovered ? 



Arn. The famous Lough-Ness, so much dis- 

 cours'd for the supposed floating island ; for here 

 it is, if any where in Scotland. Nor is it any 

 other than a natural plantation of segs and bull- 

 rushes, matted and knit so close together by 

 natural industry, and navigated by winds that 

 blow every way, floats from one part of the 

 Lough to another, upon the surface of the solid 

 deeps of this small Mediterrane : and here it is, 

 in these slippery streams, that an English ship, 

 by curious invention, was haled over the moun- 



