104 



out (Art. 43). Viewed from the summit where we now stand, the 

 scene is very wild and grand. The ridges swell up steeply and 

 nobly in front of us, from the very depths of the glens, in their 

 majestic forms of "peril and pride," and stretch away on either 

 hand, shooting up here and there into the highest peaks, and cut, 

 in lower parts between, into spiry fantastic crests. The craggy pre- 

 cipices and long steep fronts of naked rock have an imposing 

 expression of sternness and power. Crowning the ridge of which they 

 form the lateral supports, Goatfell presents on this side its grandest 

 aspect. The eye, from its elevation, takes in under a large visual 

 angle the entire western steep from the summit of the mountain to 

 the bottom of the glens. On the north side of Glen Sannox the 

 ridge of the Castles and Suithi-Fergus starts up with little less of 

 suddenness and grandeur. Lying deep down at the foot of these 

 lofty ridges, and closed in on the south-west by the high mountain 

 on which we stand, Glen Sannox has an air of singular loneliness 

 and solemnity. The same breadth of form and grand scale of parts 

 are found nowhere else in Arran ; the very simplicit}'- of the com- 

 position is one of the greatest charms of the glen. The silver 

 thread of its river, meandering far out eastwards, leads to the world 

 of life without ; arid the gentle murmur of waters, stealing up from 

 its sombre depths, breaks pleasingly the awful stillness of the 

 summer day on these high peaks. 



We have attempted in preceding paragraphs (pp. 69, 76, 77), to 

 indicate the successive steps of the process by which the mountain 

 nucleus acquired its actual conformation. From our present com- 

 manding position we are better able to estimate the amount cf 

 elevatory force required to raise the high peaks and massive ridges 

 around, and the length of time and intensity of erosive agents which 

 the formation of the long and deep chasm dividing the ranges 

 demands. Fill up this chasm and -the other glens with solid granite 

 masses, to the level of the peaks and ridges, over all throw a mantle 

 of slate, continuous with the present circular boundary around the 

 nucleus, depress the area full three thousand feet below the waters of 

 the ocean, and some measure will be obtained both of the force and 

 the time through which the present aspects were assumed. 



The sunbeam is the joy of this mountain wilderness. It lights 

 up the solemn old rocks till they laugh into beauty under its bright 

 spell. Though devoid of vegetation which might throw bright 

 tints around the rugged surfaces for the saxifrage and alchemilla, 

 the cryptogram ma and other ferns, the club moss and juniper, 

 nestle in shady clefts, and small patches of grass occur only here 



