806 



THE BRITISH ISLES. 



more solid rock?, and spread their mingled waste over the plain, thus creating the 

 most fertile soil to be met with in all Britain. 



Southern Scotland contrasts by its greater regularity of coast -line with the 

 deeply indented shores of the north. In the east only one peninsula, bounded 

 on the one side by the winding Firth of Forth, on the other by the Firth of 

 Tny, advances beyond the line of coast. In the west the broad peninsular mass 

 of Galloway projects towards Ireland, from which it is separated by a marine 

 " pit " having a depth of nearly 1,000 feet. This peninsula terminates in the 

 Rhinns of Galloway — anciently an island, but now joined by a low neck to the 

 mainland. These are the only inequalities in the contour of the coast, and the 

 contrast with the littoral region of the Western Highlands, where we feel almost 

 lost in a labyrinth of " lochs," is a very striking one. These lochs, some of 

 which communicate freely with the sea, whilst others are lakes drained by swift- 

 flowing rivers and torrents, are first met with to the north of the Clyde, along 



Fiff. 150.— The "Wall or Antoninus. 

 Scale 1 : 555,000. 



3° 30 



' 5 Miles. 



the skirt of the Highlands. Loch Lomond is the most beautiful of all these 

 lakes, and that amongst them which has most frequently formed the theme 

 of poets. The river Leven drains it into the Clyde. A sinuous strait at its 

 northern end, a veritable lake, several miles in width near its centre, but becoming 

 shallower in proportion as it grows wider, Loch Lomond presents its admirers 

 with every possible contrast of scenery — gently swelling hills and rugged crags ; 

 scarped islands raising their grey pinnacles abruptly above the translucent water, 

 and groups of low islands covered with meadows and woods, and inhabited by 

 bounding deer. Beautiful country residences are here and there seen along the 

 shore, whilst near the northern extremity of the lake the long back of Ben 

 Lomond (3,192 feet high), often enveloped in mist, rises above cultivated fields 

 and forests. 



The same mountain region gives birth to the river Forth, one of the prin- 

 cipal affluents of which has the famous Loch Katrine, sung of in Sir Walter Scott's 

 " Lady of the Lake," for its upper reservoir. Loch Katrine resembles the Lake 



