1858.] GLENS CANLOCHEN AND DOLE. 583 



Aberdeenshire^ Perthshire^ and Argyleshire, but I never saw one 

 comparable to this ; — Glen Phee, a few miles to the south-east^ is 

 indeed grander^ but not so beautiful ; — it is the combination of 

 precipice^ greensward^ and feathery Larch which gives the especial 

 charm to Canlochen, as well as the singular way in which it is 

 shut out from the world beyond. From the spot on which we 

 stand, we look down upon an immense basin, a mile and a half 

 in diameter, and one thousand feet deep. The precipices imme- 

 diately beneath our feet, as well as those on either side of the glen, 

 vary from four hundred to six hundred feet in height, with a talus 

 of dehns at their foot, sloping abruptly down into the valley below. 

 From each angle of the glen and gully in the rocks proceed little 

 rills, which leap quickly down the steep grassy slope until they at 

 last unite at the bottom of the glen and form a silver thread, 

 winding its serpentine course through the bright greensward, 

 till it is finally lost to view behind a projecting shoulder of the 

 mountain, which, fringed with Larch-trees, completely shuts in 

 the glen. These trees have been planted as a shelter for the 

 deer, of which there are seven or eight hundred in this glen ; 

 and noble fellows they are, as they stalk majestically along 

 the mountain-side in groups of fifty to a hundred, one monarch 

 stag leading the way. But now to work. A few steps down the 

 craggy precipices and what a goodly harvest greets our eyes ! Al- . 

 most the first thing I stumble on is the exquisite Veronica saxa- 

 tilis, now almost past flowering, for it is the 29tli of July, but the 

 few blossoms still remaining testify to its beauties, and make one 

 feel that no description ever has or ever can do it full justice. 

 Every ledge is covered with crimson and purple tufts of Silene 

 acaulis ^and Saxifraga oppositifolid, while almost every crevice 

 contains a plant of Polystichum Lonchitfs, some of truly giant 

 dimensions. The luxuriance to which this handsome alpine Fern 

 here attained was something extraordinary, and more particularly 

 so to me, who had only hitherto gathered Snowdon specimens, 

 which are of mere Lilliputian dimensions as compared with these. 

 I brought away in triumph one frond from a magnificent plant, 

 which measures 22| inches in length, and 2i inches in breadth, 

 the length of the midrib of the longest pinna being 1| inches, 

 and the whole number of pairs- of distinct pinnse 51. Cerastium 

 alpinum and Saxifraga nivalis abound in many places, with Salix 

 reticulata, lanata, nigricans, myrsinites, and arenaria. On the 



