5 6 COUNTRY ESSAYS. 



line of the Caledonian Canal, the Lochaber Glens, and the 

 Monadhliah Mountains form a district where glacial action 

 can, perhaps, be observed better than in any other part of the 

 British Isles, save the remote Western Hebrides. So it came 

 to pass that last autumn found me undertaking a pilgrimage 

 northwards, and despite a strong gravitation to visit the leaf-beds 

 of Ardtun, discovered in 1857 by the Duke of Argyll, and the 

 Cuchullins, with their hypersthenic rocks belonging to the 

 Laurentian series the very oldest in that enormous succession 

 of rock-chronology known to modern geology contenting my- 

 self with the glacial scenery of Glen Roy and the vicinity. 

 Others may, perhaps, like to accompany my footsteps. 



How two pedestrians, drenched and travel-stained, reached 

 Bannavie, at the western entrance of the Caledonian Canal, in 

 mid October, it boots not to inquire. Suffice it to say, that for 

 some six weeks the natives affirmed it had rained daily, save on 

 Sunday afternoons, and on some days that it rained the whole 

 day. The appearance of the country may easily be conceived : 

 the moors resembled a gigantic sponge, while torrents flung 

 themselves down the sides of every mountain, now plunging 

 into deep, dripping recesses, whence continually floated curling 

 masses of white vapour ; now leaping in full view, from rock- 

 shelf to rock-shelf, while the air seemed to shake with their 

 vibration and roar. No one has seen the full mountain beauty 

 of Scotland until he has viewed it when suffering from such an 

 autumnal deluge ; roads submerged, lakes brim full, and rivers 

 roaring in full spate over their rocky beds ; while the bare 

 brown mountains dimly loom through enveloping mists, their 

 size enhanced by imagination, as it is impossible to trace 

 their outlines in the cloud-rack that gathers round their 

 shoulders. Coming up Glen Falloch the river had presented 

 a splended sight. It came down rearing and leaping in terrific 

 masses of white foam through its narrow channel, till it irresis- 

 tibly reminded us of a charge of the Scots Greys, or of the 



