60 COUNTRY ESSAYS. 



the drainage of a wide mountainous region on either side, and 

 in old times a larger amount of ice probably flowed into it than 

 into any other valley in Scotland. It received from the west 

 the large glaciers of Loch Eil, Loch Arkaig, Glen Morriston 

 and Glen Urquhart ; from the east those of the glens of Loch- 

 aber, and those which came down from the north-western 

 flanks of the Monadhliah Mountains. Its sides show every- 

 where the flowing rounded outlines that mark the seaward 

 march of the ice ; and its rocky bottom, where visible, bears 

 the same impress."* The geologist wanders through this dis- 

 trict as through an enchanted land, to which he alone holds 

 the key, and on which, as a theatre for posterity's wonder, 

 marvellous scenes were once represented in days too remote 

 to admit even of a guess. It forms a worthy introduction to 

 the glacial phenomena of its small neighbours, Glen Spean and 

 Glen Roy. 



It was on the afternoon of a beautiful autumnal Sunday that 

 I ascended the Roy valley. It had rained all night and most 

 of the morning. Judge, therefore, of my delight when outside 

 the little inn I turned to see Ben Nevis, and found it covered 

 with snow, and that no longer the last of the previous season, 

 but the first of the present winter. The early part of the walk 

 lies up the Spean valley ; and here it was impossible for the 

 merest tyro in geological science not to be struck with the 

 many evidences of glacial action. Moraines, both lateral and 

 medial, may be traced in the numerous beds of debris and de- 

 tritus with which much of it is choked. Fine examples of 

 raised beaches, too, occur on either hand ; while Spean plunges 

 along its rocky bed below, cutting through the hard schist, and 

 suffering rains, frosts, and other natural agents to split it along 

 its numerous joints. More strange than all, however, are the 

 long level terraces, sometimes crowned with a farm-house and 

 clumps of trees, visible on the right. These contrast favour- 

 * Geikie's Scenery and Geology of Scotland, p. 1 80 : Macmillan. 1865. 



