ON THE HIGHLANDS 



immense mountain-masses, seemingly piled above 

 each other, and terminating at last in the most ele- 

 gant and lofty spiral peaks, which appear as if touch- 

 ing the skies ; and the stream dashing from rock to 

 rock in the centre of the valley : all together com- 

 pose a group of the rude and striking picturesque, 

 which, if any where equalled, can hardly be sur- • 

 passed. I was fortunate in seeing Glencoe, both 

 with the beauty of a clear sky, and with the 

 glooming heightenings of broken clouds, and 

 floating mist. 



It is to the singularly indestructible texture of 

 the rocks composing its frightful declivities, and 

 high overhanging cliffs, that this famous glen owes 

 its rugged and tremendous aspect. They con- 

 sist of a peculiarly tenacious compact- felspar, 

 which is porphyritic, and inclining sometimes to 

 hornstone, sometimes to jasper ; in beds of dif- 

 ferent shades of colour, from a greyish-black, re- 

 sembling basalt, to a kind of brick or flesh red, 

 alternating with each other, and subordinate to 

 the primitive- rocks, which in some places may be 

 still distinctly traced. From inspecting a rolled 

 angular fragment, which I found among the de- 

 bris, it seems probable, that common jasper oc- 

 curs in veins of these rocks. The darker varie- 

 ties of the stony masses approach to hornstone : and 

 the whole appear to be caped with porphyry, of 

 the same kind with that which occurs soon after 

 leaving King's House. Of this, indeed, I could 

 form an opinion only from the debris, which co~ 



V 



