190 MEMORIAL TRIBUTE 



ground seems low, presenting only some undulations, 

 which, although really of some considerable height, are 

 scarcely noticeable from our present station. On this 

 side of the Dee, the position of which is known only by 

 recollection, is a range of low hills, undulated in its 

 outline, but high enough to prevent us from seeing 

 those hills that seemed mountains to us as we traversed 

 the valley. Where the Braemar mingle with the Atholl 

 ranges in the extreme distance, the horizon is next 

 bounded by a roundish hill, only about five miles distant. 

 Then Ben Aun rising behind, with its long unwaved, 

 but curiously knobbed ridge, leads us to the blaze of 

 the western sun, just passing behind the broad head of 

 the Bho-dhoun, which, at only the distance of two miles, 

 seems continuous with the hill on which we stand. The 

 long shadows cast upon the grey and brown moors by 

 the many prominences of the Lochnagar group have a 

 singular and rather perplexing effect ; for they give the 

 well-known tract an aspect different from any under 

 which we have contemplated it, whether in the sunshine 

 of noontide, the diffused light of a cloudy day, or when 

 the summits, involved in vapours, hid themselves from 

 our view, and the bases of the mountains seemed more 

 massy than they ever do when their entire forms are 

 disclosed. 



But now, over the ridge of Ben Aun, creeps a thin 

 and flaky mass of vapour, glowing on its northern side 

 with a roseate tint ; purplish rays diverge from behind 

 the brown hill to our right ; the white summit of Mona- 

 Chuine has assumed a roseate hue, and Lochnagar is 



