OF LOCHABER. 11 



it is compelled to cross to the other side, the breadth of it is al- 

 ways greatly expanded, so as to give it the appearance of a 

 broad inclined plane, in some instances so much as half a 

 mile, or perhaps even a mile wide ; and this is almost invari- 

 ably covered, to a certain depth, with a stratum of peat-moss. 

 In such cases, the level of the linear appearance infallibly ap- 

 plies to the upper bounding line of the expanded inclined 

 plane. These expansions of the shelves, are not only to be 

 met with in those places, where they cross from one side of a 

 valley to the other, but are also to be observed in many other 

 parts of their course, particularly where the hills are low, and 

 of a gentle slope, or rather where the shelves run along the 

 bottom of such hills. On a first hasty observation, these ex- 

 pansions may be overlooked, as having nothing to do with the 

 shelves, and it may be supposed, that some cause has here 

 operated to interrupt them for a time. But a little attention 

 to their appearance and level, will at once show, that these 

 inclined planes have been formed by the same cause, as the 

 more properly defined shelves, and that they are in fact no- 

 thing more than expanded continuations of them, which, from 

 the very circumstance of their greater breadth, lose that ex- 

 tremely sharp and striking appearance, so remarkable in those 

 parts where the hills are steeper and more lofty. 



The shelves are in many places covered with large masses 

 of stone, some of them many tons in weight, lying for the 

 most part quite detached on the surface, and having their acu- 

 ter angles rounded off in the greater number of instances ; in 

 short, in every respect resembling those fragments generally 

 found strewed on the margin, and in the shallow edge of al- 

 pine lakes. In some places, where the stones are large, and 

 the shelf narrow, a single block covers its whole breadth. 

 Where rock appears any where on a shelf, its angles are also 

 for the most part rounded. One fact is very important, and 



b 2 deserves 



