186 



I N V E R N E S S-g II I R E. 



hire. 



Natural 

 forau uf 

 timber. 



Almost nil these rivers are clear, rapid, and rocky, 

 discharging themselves into the East Sea, have 

 much longer courses than those entering the Western 

 ( Venn. 



From the innumerable huge trunks and stocks of 

 trees found every where in the extensive mosses of 

 Inverness-shire, there can be doubt that at one period 

 the whole country was covered with forests. In many 

 places, the roots and stools, in the growing position, 

 and as if the stems had been newly removed from them, 

 are so amazingly numerous, that there is often not more 

 than two feet of distance between them. In other 

 mosses, as in one cut through by Mr. Macpherson 

 Grant's canal in Badenoch, three courses of roots were 

 discovered, which had grown one above the other. 

 Judging from the greater number of specimens dug 

 u j-, all over the county, the Scotch fir was unquestion- 

 ably the most abundant tree ; but the birch, the hazel, 

 the oak, the mountain ash, and* the alder, must have 

 been also very numerous. The remains of all these 

 trees, but particularly of the fir, are found on very 

 highly elevated situations, far above the point where it 

 would now be possible to raise trees of any kind by 

 human exertions. The carbonized crust which gene- 

 rally appears on the stocks and stems of the trees, would 

 seem to indicate that the forests had been destroyed 

 by fire ; and the trunks found lying horizontally, are 

 often hollowed out above, something in the form of a 

 spout for conveying water, as if their upper sides had 

 continued to burn after they had been extinguished 

 below, by falling into moist ground. Many of these 

 trunks are enormous. Some very large masses of oak 

 were brought up by the dredging machine employed 

 in deepening the line of the Caledonian Canal, in Loch 

 Dochfour, from under 16 feet of gravel, at the bottom 

 of the lake. One of these fragments measures 30 feet 

 round ; and though only a small portion of the original 

 tree, it contains about 220 cubic feet. It is black as 

 ebony, and perfectly fresh and hard. At the upper 

 end of Loch Garry, there are the wrecks of a magnifi- 

 cent oak forest, not, as is commonly the case, embedded 

 in peat earth, but lying on the surface of the solid 

 ground, like trees newly thrown down. A great many 

 years must have elapsed since those trees were laid 

 prostrate, for there is now a very old and beautiful 

 birch wood growing on the ground they formerly oc- 

 cupied. We measured one of these trunks, and found 

 it to be 23 feet long without a branch, 1 6 feet round 

 at the root, and 11 feet in circumference at the small 

 end, under the fork. With the exception of an inch 

 or two of the exterior, it appeared perfectly fresh. It 

 lies within a yard of the stock whereon it grew ; but it 

 is not easy to tell, from appearances, how it was seve- 

 red from it. The stock is worn away, and hollowed 

 out, so that it now encircles a large birch tree of more 

 thnn a foot diameter, self sown, and growing vigorous- 

 ly within it. The birch wood seems to have complete- 

 ly usurped the place of the ancient oak forest; for 

 there are no trees of the latter species in the neighbour- 

 hood, excepting a few stunted bushes thinly scattered 

 here and there. 



The oak is now rather a scarce tree in Inverness- 

 shire, although it is found in profusion as copse wood. 

 The banks of Loch Ness, and those of many of the 

 other lakes, are covered with it, as well as with ash, 

 mountain ash, aspen, holly, and almost every variety 

 of tree. Natural birch woods are very numerous, as 

 on Loch Ness, in the vales of Urquhart and Glen Mor- 



riston, on the banks of the Beauly and of Loch Lag- invmiL 

 gan, at Uothiemurchus, Kinrara, &c. Perhaps the finest *hue. 

 any where to be met with, are those on tfre banks of ~" f ~v~ 

 the Feshie at Invereshie, and those alymt Loch Garry, 

 where there are several thousand acres of this beautiful 

 tree in the highest perfection. The natural fir woods 

 are immense, both as to number and extent. Those 

 of Rothiemurchus are estimated at fourteen or sixteen 

 square miles. On the sides of Loch Arkeg, in Glen 

 Garry, Glen Morriston, Strath Glass, Glen Strathfar- 

 rar, and at the head of Loch Sheil, the fir forests are so 

 enormous as to go beyond calculation. 



There are few counties in Great Britain possessing 

 a greater profusion of grand and splendid scenery than 

 that of which we are now treating. To ^give even a 

 faint idea of its various natural beauties, would greatly 

 exceed our limits. It is, however, impossible to pass 

 over this part of our subject, without directing the at- 

 tention of the lover of nature to those spots where he 

 would most delight to wander. The whole line of the 

 Caledonian Valley, with its lakes, and its romantic tri- 

 butary streams and glens, furnishes one continued se- 

 ries of enchanting scenes. The Fall of Foyers we have 

 already noticed, (see that article.) In Urquhart, Glen 

 Morriston, and Glen Garry, there are also very fine falls, 

 attended by the most magnificent accompaniments of 

 rocks and woods. The scenery of Loch Garry, and the 

 river issuing from it, is perhaps almost unrivalled any 

 where. In Glennevis there are two very grand water- 

 falls, and, particularly one of them, of much greater 

 height and magnitude than the Fall of Foyers, yet lit- 

 tle if at all known by any body but the inhabitants of 

 the valley. The salt-water lake called Loch Leven, 

 expanding above Ballachulish ferry, at the southern 

 point of the county, possesses a combination of every 

 thing that is beautiful or sublime in landscape. There 

 the bold shores, now prominent and now retiring, co- 

 vered with groves of die freshest and most vigorous 

 natural trees of every description, almost dipping the 

 extremity of their branches in the sea the scattered 

 cottages and clustered fishing villages the boats 

 the islands and, above all, the majestic and fantasti- 

 cally formed mountains, rising in mist around it, ha- 

 ving in many places rocky and shivered fronts, all 

 conspire to render this lake one of the most lovely and 

 interesting in nature. Part of the scenery on the river 

 Beauly, called " the Dream," is so exquisitely beautiful, 

 as almost to induce the supposition, that the name may 

 have originated in its resemblance to those ideal pic- 

 tures offered to the sleeping fancy. The banks of the 

 Spey, from Aviemore upwards to the west end of Loch 

 Inch, comprising the scenery of Rothiemurchus and 

 its lakes, Kinrara, Invereshie, and Belleville, are well 

 known. But there are spots amongst the deep glens of 

 the Cairngorum mountain, but rarely visited, where the 

 artist might study nature in her wildest garb. 



In Inverness-shire, as in all other mountainous coun- jpringi. 

 tries, springs of water of the greatest purity are found 

 every where. Those impregnated with mineral sub- 

 stances are more rare, or, at least, are as yet little 

 known. Water of sulphureous impregnation issues in 

 various places from the hills of Loch Ness ; and chaly- 

 beate springs are found in various situations, particu- 

 larly in the district of Strathspey. 



In a county so varied, and so extensive as Inverness- Climate. 



shire, it is natural to expect a great variety of climate. 



From the constant alternation of hill and valley, the 



circumstance of two thermometers within half a mile 



3 



