PHYSICAL FEATURES. 



133 



shows three great aod principal corries : * The Dry Corrie of the 

 Arm Chair/ Coire an t'Sneachh-da or Snow Corrie^ where snow 

 lies far into the summer, and Coire an Lochain, the great pre- 

 cipices circling the two latter. 



From this same vantage point, and away to the right when 

 facing Cairngorm, lies the wild glen of Loch and Eiver Eunach — 

 * a large plain of pines ' (i.e. Eothiemurchus) Bath-m6r-a guisthach 

 — between and in the middle distance. 



XIII. THE CAIKNGOEMS. 



The praises of the grand and savage scenery of the Cairngorm 

 range and its recesses have repeatedly been sung, and still are 

 being sung, and, no doubt, will be sung for ever. Such writers as 

 John Hill Burton sang them in his The Cairngonii Mountains^ 

 descending the great corries of Loch Avon, ' like a fragment of the 

 Alps imported and set down in Scotland,' and its feeding streamlet 

 trickling from the melting snow wreaths ; describing the * long 

 wall or precipice of Braeriach, and the pass of Cairngorm where 

 the wells of Dee spring downwards to the Dee; and the upper 

 waters of the tributaries of Spey nearly join hands across the 

 ridge at the head of the Larig Pass ; or referring to the Shelter 

 Stone of Glen Avon, or 



* The grizzly rocks that giiard 



The infant rills of Highland Dee, 

 Where hunter's horn was never heard, 

 Nor bugle of the forest bee. 



'Mid wastes that dern and dreary lie, 



One mountain rears its mighty form, 

 Disturbs the moon in passing by, 



And smiles above the thunder storm.' 



James Hogg. 



Of later years we have some most useful little books written by 



