SCENERY OF GLEN TILT. 149 



stand airy and light, displaying their glossy stems upon 

 the knolls, or shelving down the sides of the great moun- 

 tain, vivid as it here is with luxuriant pasture. The woods 

 now skirt the braes in larger masses, winding on the hill 

 sides and conforming themselves to the varied undulations 

 of the surface. They press closely on the river where the 

 valley is contracted, and their branches wave over it, and 

 shed the sear leaf in the stream. Some of the masses are 

 dense ; others admit the sunbeam, striking on the scarlet 

 berries of the mountain ash, and bringing out the rich 

 autumnal tint of the bracken which grows beneath them. 

 All soon uniting in mass, gather into larch and pine forest, 

 and at length mingle with the woods of Blair. 



The pass itself is barred in by the grim mountains that 

 heave their dun backs about it, and send down many a 

 torrent from their riven ribs. A good road winds along the 

 braes, catching and losing the waters as it pierces the 

 gloom of the woods, or breaks forth into light and expanse. 

 Picturesque bridges are thrown across the river, and every 

 thing has been done that consummate judgment could effect 

 to temper the wild scene with beauty and convenience ; to 

 temper, but not to destroy it ; that indeed, if advisable, 

 were almost beyond the power of man. Stern and indomit- 

 able as the wrath of Achilles, the Tilt ever holds its mood, 

 and comes raging on, wheeling in eddies, rushing in cata- 

 racts, or spreading into pools, bearing along with it at 

 times huge fragments of rock that form uncouth islands in 

 its channel, upon which the stricken deer stands dominant 

 at bay ; still ceaseless it races onward, fretting and foaming, 

 till at length its mad career is arrested in the less turbulent 

 waters of the Garry. 



After the storm this river speaks in a voice of thunder, 

 and quells every noise around it ; but when the winds are 

 hushed, and the weather gleam streaks the sky from afar, 

 and the rain-drops glitter in the sunshine, some sylvan 

 sounds may occasionally be heard the solitary croak of the 

 raven's voice as he sits boding on the crags, the distant 

 bellow of the hart, or the scream of the eagle falling faintly 

 on the ear from the skies above. In a grey day the moun- 

 tains around are stern and dark, and there is gloom all up 



