40 BOTANICAL TOfrR IN THE 



CHAPTER V. 



BEX LAWEES. 



FROM Ben Lawers Inn the easiest route up the mountain is, 

 first, the high-road near the turnpike (toll-bar), and there turn 

 to the left taking the peat-road which leads up the hill in a direc- 

 tion parallel with the Den of Lawers. There is a path somewhat 

 shorter than along the high-road, viz. across some fields, passing 

 by two or three straggling cottages on the Killin side of the Den. 

 The Den may be entered near the wood about a mile from Lawers 

 Inn. But walking by the side of the brawling torrent is often 

 difficult, and sometimes dangerous ; for the rocks often impinge 

 upon the space between the steep brae and the stream, leaving in 

 some parts but scanty footing for the adventurous pedestrians, in 

 others entirely blocking up the way, and rendering a retrograde 

 movement necessary for those who think ' ' discretion the better 

 part of valour/' We dipped into the Den, and traversed a part 

 of it, but finding it both a tedious and toilsome medium of ad- 

 vance, we quitted it, and clambering up the steep wooded side, 

 took r to the moory, heathy ground on the left, a dreary and de- 

 solate scene, but a very suitable approach to the mighty Ben 

 Lawers, an appropriate foreground to the scenery before us, a 

 magnificent propylseum into one of the most august of Nature's 

 temples. 



After scouring through this long heath, and leaping over many 

 a peat hag, and trusting to many treacherous bogs, which some- 

 times gave way and spattered us with black, cold, miry sludge, 

 we got a glimpse of the dark waters of Loch-na-Gat, which we 

 soon found to consist of two lakes, the outer one smaller than 

 the inner, and both connected by a short, narrow strait. Hound 

 about the head of this lake or lakes stand the majestic heads and 

 peaks, the massive buttresses of Ben Lawers. There flows into 

 the upper end of Loch-na-Gat a rather large stream, which has 

 its source in the north-east side of Ben Lawers : this we crossed, 



