UP GLEN ROY. 67 



affirmed old sea margins." This reasoning is simply begging 

 the question. It is probable, nay, it is almost certain, that 

 every upholder of the ice-theory would allow that the mainland 

 of Scotland had been more than once submerged and again 

 elevated. But, over and above these theoretical submersions, 

 the whole interest of the locality centres in its wonderful 

 moraines and other evidences which point unmistakeably to a 

 glacial age. On the view that the sea caused the roads of Glen 

 Roy, all these heaps and mounds, the debris of a former world, 

 remain unaccounted for. Perhaps the conclusion of the Duke 

 of Argyll,* which embraces both theories, is the one to which 

 most scientific students will at present give in their adhesion. 

 With regard to the glacial origin of lake-basins, he lays it down 

 that, being nothing but submerged valleys, they are due in part 

 to glacier-action, although the other half of their creation is to 

 be sought in the subterranean action of subsidence. As for the 

 general fact of submergence and re-elevation, this, he adds, 

 is perhaps as certain as any feature of geological science. He 

 instances the raised beaches of the Isle of Jura and elsewhere ; 

 but at Glen Roy, supposing the Parallel Roads were due to 

 maritime forces, the glacial phenomena, which we have seen 

 are so abundant, obtrusively demand a different explanation. 



The reader, however, much more the actual observer, has 

 probably by this time settled his own theory ; the sun is slant- 

 ing over Ben Nevis, and it is time to retrace our steps. All 

 the glory of a stormy autumnal evening, broken clouds of red 

 and gold, is being buffetted about the great mountain's head 

 by a violent west wind, and their vivid colours are strongly re- 

 lieved against the snow. It is a lonely walk to the little inn ; 

 but every bank, every striated rock-surface, has its associations. 

 Even when darkness falls, the unusual spectacle on every side, 

 the ghostly forms of glacial scenery, keep the mind actively 



* On the Physical Structure of the Highlands (British Association, Sept. 

 1876.) 



