26 ON THE PARALLEL ROADS 



Gluoy, where it expands into a wide inclined plane, and 

 where it is united to, and identified with, the twin portion of it 

 coming up on the faces of the hills on that side of the valley. 

 This broad part of the shelf is about one hundred yards wide, 

 and presents the abrupt face of a bank to the bottom of the 

 glen. By an examination of the map, the river Gluoy will be 

 observed to enter the glen from its southern mountains, 

 whence it throws itself in a cascade, and falls by a series of ca- 

 taracts into a very remarkable ravine, dividing the inclined 

 plane or broad part of the shelf, at right angles to its line of 

 extent. Throughout the whole length of this singular chasm, 

 which, though only a few feet wide, is perhaps not less than 

 fifty or sixty feet deep, the river has worn out a passage on a 

 level, not much above that of the bottom of the valley, into 

 which it issues, and where it is almost immediately joined by 

 a branch coming from the hills to the north. Some little way 

 below the junction of the two streams, the river begins to lay 

 bare the rock in its course, which becomes more rugged, as 

 it deepens in its progress towards the Great Glen of Scot- 

 land. 



The Glen-mor-na-Albin, or Great Glen of Scotland, enough 

 of which is laid down in the accompanying map, to show its 

 reference to the district under consideration, bisects Scotland 

 in a straight line, from N. E. to S. W. from the east sea at In- 

 verness, to the west sea at Fort William. It is narrow 

 throughout its whole length, seldom much exceeding a mile 

 in breadth, except where it expands towards the lower end of 

 Loch Ness. The mountains forming its sides are every where 

 lofty, abrupt, and precipitous, bearing every appearance of ha- 

 ving been severed from one another, by some tremendous con- 

 vulsion of nature. The bottom is chiefly filled by Lochs Ness, 

 Oich, and Lochy, and has so very small a rise from the two 



seas 



