6 ANCIENT FORr/FICJTlONS in 



each end by a fmall riling or moulder. At the diftance of three 

 or four miles, its artificial appearance is more perceptible than 

 upon a nearer approach, when the eye, feeing only a part, fails 

 to take in the great outlines, and to perceive their regularity and 

 fymmetry. A more diftin<ft idea of the general form of this 

 hill than can be given by defcription, may be obtained from a 

 fketch taken from the oppofite high grounds, at a few miles di- 

 ftance. See Plate I. fig. i. In this fketch, Craig-Phadrick is 

 marked by the letter C. B are thofe hills, a part of the fame 

 ridge, which bound Loch-Nefs upon the north-weft ; and D is 

 a conical hill oppofite to Craig-Phadrick, on the other fide of the 

 Murray frith. 



On approaching Craig-Phadrick from the level ridge upon 

 the weft fide, what firft prefents itfelf to view is a road cut 

 through the rock, from the bottom to the fummit ; in mo ft 

 places about ten feet in breadth, and nearly of the fame depth, 

 winding in an eafy ferpentine direction for about feventy feet m y 

 by which means an afcent is gained over a very fteep rock, 

 which is otherwife quite inacceflible from that quarter. See 

 Plate I. fig. 2. The form alone of this road leaves little room 

 to doubt of its being an operation of art. I examined the fides 

 of it, where it is cut into the rock, to fee if there were any 

 marks of a tool. A labourer, who attended me with a mattock, 

 or quarryman's pick, declared his opinion, that, in many places, 

 there were marks of an inftrument fimilar to what he had in his 

 hand ; but the rock being compofed of many rounded pebbles, 

 and when broken prefenting a furface, in which the beds of 

 thofe pebbles have often an appearance like what is made by the 

 ftroke of a tool, I lay little weight upon that circumftance. The 

 form alone of this road, as I have already faid, was fufficiently 

 convincing to me of its being an operation of art. 



From the nature of the ftone itfelf, of which this hill is 

 formed, and from that compound appearance of water-worn 

 pebbles, flicking in a cementing mafs, it has been conjectured, 



that 



