302 



ON THE HIGHLANDS* 



Wc reached the summit in the afternoon. And 

 here, it is not easy to imagine a view more truly 

 striking than what we beheld, like a scene of en- 

 chantment, which the few last steps of our as- 

 cent had spread instantaneously before the eye, 

 The wind had now died away into a gentle 

 breeze ; the sky was clear ; and the weather de- 

 lightful. In this state of the atmosphere, the first 

 objects that arrested the attention, were the colours 

 around the setting sun. As they appeared in na- 

 ture from such a height, these colours were so vi- 

 vid, that any attempt to convey an idea of their 

 beauty, by the most brilliant pencil or animated 

 description, without the aid of actual sensation, 

 would be hopeless. They had in truth, the rich- 

 ness and blaze of an Italian sky ; and the rays of 

 the evening sun, thus refracted into all the variety 

 of iridescent hues, dashing horizontally, with 

 the finest effects of 'light and shade, amongst the 

 innumerable conical summits which stand to the 

 west, threw over the landscape an exquisite fi- 

 nish of glow and splendour. 



The whole range embraced by the eye at the 

 top of Ben- More, renders the prospect undoubt- 

 edly one of the most commanding and magnifi- 

 cent in Scotland, perhaps in Britain ; hardly infe- 

 rior, in point of beauty, to those of Ben-Lomond, 

 and Ben-Ledi, and in extent, yielding only to that 

 of Ben-Nevis. It reaches from the upper part 

 of Inverness-shire, on the north, to Arran and 

 Ireland, which may be faintly descried on the 



