56 



FALLS OF THE CLYDE. 



The river Clyde, near the town of Lanark, is, according to the opinion 

 of all travellers, a situation of the most romantic and picturesque beauty 

 of scenery unsurpassed in Europe. The falls of Clyde have been long 

 celebrated ; they are sometimes called " Linns," which comes from the 

 Gaelic Leum, a fall of water. The first precipice over which the river 

 rushes oh its way from the hills, is situated about two miles above 

 Lanark, and is known by the name of Bonnington Linn. It is a per- 

 pendicular rock of about 20 or 30 feet high, over which the water, after 

 having approached its brink in a broad sheet, smooth as a mirror, and 

 reflecting the forests that clothe its margin, tumbles impetuously into a 

 deep hollow or basin, where it is instantly ground into froth. A dense 

 mist continually hovers over this boiling cauldron. From this point 

 downwards the channel of the river assumes a chaotic appearance; instead 

 of the quiet and outspread waters above the fall we have now a confined 

 and angry torrent, forcing its way with the noise of thunder between 

 steep and meeting rocks, and over incessant impediments. The scenery 

 on both sides, however, isexquisitely rich and beautiful. A walk of about 

 half a mile, which may be said almost to overhang the river, leads to the 

 second and most famous of the falls, that called Corra Linn t from the cas- 

 tle of Corra, now in ruins, which stands in its vicinage. The tremendous 

 rocks around, the old castle on the opposite bank, a corn mill on the 

 rock below, the furious and impatient stream foaming over the rock, the 

 horrid chasm and abyss beneath the feet, heightened by the hollow 

 murmur of the water and the screams of wild birds, form a spectacle at 

 once tremendous and pleasing. A summer house is situated on a high 

 rocky bank that overlooks the Linn. From its uppermost room it affords 

 a very striking prospect of the fall ; for all at once, on throwing jour 

 eyes towards a mirror on the opposite side of the room from the fall, you 

 see the whole tremendous cataract pouring, as it were, upon your head. 

 The Corra Linn, by measurement, is 84 feet in height. The river does 

 not rush over it in one uniform sheet like Bonnington Linn, but in three 

 different, though almost imperceptible, precipitate leaps. On the southern 

 bank, and when the sun shines, a rainbow is perpetually seen forming 

 itself upon the mist and fogs arising from the violent dashing of the 

 waters. A short distance below Corra Linn is another fall called 



