Io6 Burnside. 



to a level spot ; but our burn is nowhere in sight, although 

 we can hear it distinctly enough. A tall rugged rock lies to 

 the right of us ; a few steps farther, and we pass round the 

 mass and stand on a little knoll, and there, right before us, is 

 the burn again. . 



The beautiful scene flashes on us like a revelation. Above 

 are the lovely birch trees on the island where the burn 

 divides, whilst on both sides tall precipitous rocks, black 

 and bare, hem it in. Their ruggedness is softened by the 

 graceful beauty of the birch trees which rise from their 

 bases, whilst the slender weeping branches and tiny leaves 

 relieve the nakedness and blackness of the rock itself. 

 Above the perpendicular cliffs the rocks on the Donich side 

 are in large broken masses, while the weathering of ages 

 has formed a deep surface soil here and there, in which a 

 sturdy-looking thorn or graceful mountain ash has taken its 

 stand, the rock ledges themselves being narrowly lined with 

 blossoming heather ; the topmost ridge of broken rocks leads 

 gradually to the grassy slopes of the mountain above. 



With such a background, the divided stream comes rush- 

 ing on, one branch sweeping round each side of the tiny 

 verdant islet in its centre ; the two join again beyond the 

 island on a large hollowed ledge of rock, the water eddying 

 and bubbling as the streamlets rush into each other, and 

 the reunited stream flows foaming onwards down the smooth 

 rocky bed until the edge of the precipice is reached, when, 

 with a bound, it dashes over into the abyss below, scattering 

 the spray in clouds, whilst 



" The monstrous ledges slope and spill 

 Their thousand wreaths of dangling water-smoke, 

 That like a broken purpose waste in air." 



