CATARACTS, AND INUNDATIONS. 273 



of Loch-Ness stands, on a rock, the famous castle of Urqhart; the 

 great ditch' round it was for the most part cut out of the rock, 

 and received water from the lake. This castle consisted of seven 

 great towers, and it is said was built by the Cuminees, or Cunnings, 

 but was demolished by King Edward the First of England, leaving 

 only one tower to the east, still remaining. About four miles to 

 the westward of this castle, on the side of Loch-Ness, stands that 

 great mountain Meal-fuor-vouny, of a round shape, and very 

 high, esteemed two miles of perpendicular height from the lake. 

 On the very top of this hill is a lake of cold fresh water, about 30 

 fathoms in length, and six broad, no course or stream running 

 either to it or from it. The bottom of it cannot be sounded. With 

 100 fathoms of small line I could find no bottom. It is always 

 equally full, and never freezes. 



There is, due west, from the end of the river Ness, an arm of 

 the sea, called Beuly Frith, six miles in length and two in breadth. 

 The bottom seems to have once been firm land, for near the middle 

 of it are found long oak trees, with their roots entire, some above 

 60 feet in length, tying covered with the sand, which doubtless 

 have grown there ; there are also three great cairns or heaps of 

 stones in this lake, at considerable distance from each other; one 

 of a huge size, in the middle of the Frith, is accessible at low 

 water, and appears to have been a burial place, by the urns which 

 yre sometimes discovered. As the sea encroaches and wears the 

 banks upward, there are found long oaken beams of 20 or 30 feet 

 long, some of them 8, 1'2, or 14 feet under ground. I saw one of 

 lliem 14 feet long, that had the mark of the axe on it, with several 

 augre bores in it. The river Beuly, which falls into this arm of the 

 sea, near Lovat, has sunk so low that oaken trees of great length, 

 and 16 feet under ground, are discovered in the banks, with layers 

 of sand, gravel, clay, and earth over them ; and we have found 

 some oaks, with coals, and pieces of burnt timber, as low as 16 

 feet deep. 



About 17 miles due west from Beuly, there is a forest called 

 Aft'aruck, In which there is a mountain called Glenin-tea, and on 

 the north side, under the shade of a great sloping rock, stands a 

 lake of fresh water, called Lochan Wyn, or Green Lake, 18 feet 

 in diameter, about a fathom deep, which is always covered with 

 ice, summer and winter. The next mountain, north of that, is 



VOL. nr. T 



