366 NETHER LOCHABER. 



photographic description of Glen Nevis, for which, indeed, half-a- 

 dozen Nether Lochaber columns would hardly suflSce ; we can only 

 hurriedly glance at what most instantly and indelibly struck us in 

 the day's excursion. First of aU, we were aU struck by the exceed- 

 ing peUucidity and crystal clearness of the waters of the Nevis. 

 Nowhere else did we ever see a mountain stream so beauti- 

 fully transparent. Standing on the brink of any selected pool, 

 many feet in depth, you distinguished the smallest pea-sized pebble, 

 its veins, scratches, and striations, as distinctly as if you had it on 

 the palm of your hand, under a lens, and within less than a 

 foot focus of your eyebaU ! And all this remarkable peUucidity, 

 observe, not in one particular pool, or in any one particular stretch 

 of the river, but throughout all its beautiful windings. Another 

 remarkable feature of the glen is the manner in which its natural 

 birch woods grow. They occupy a pretty broad belt almost half- 

 way up the mountains, leafing a still broader belt between them- 

 selves and the river banks comparatively bare and treeless. In all 

 the other Highland glens with which we have any acquaintance, 

 whatever of wood there is always begins, as seems most natural, 

 at the river banks, where it is thickest and most luxuriant, growing 

 away and upwards on either side to a greater or less altitude, 

 according to the nature of the soil and the shelter to be had from 

 the prevailing winds. And speaking of winds, this is the place to 

 observe that of all our glens Glen Nevis is perhaps the stormiest, 

 the wind in a gale not blowing steadily, but in fitful gusts and 

 whirlwind-wise, striking in from the corries right and left, and 

 meeting in the centre with a force and fury imimaginable by 

 non-residenters. How do you know, the reader may ask, for it was 

 calm and quiet enough during your visit on Friday 1 True, and 

 yet we failed not to notice a very striking proof of the storminess 

 at times of Glen Nevis notwithstanding. As you pass the forester's 

 house at Auohreoch, lift up your eyes, and please observe how 



