33^ ON THE HIGHLANDS. 



quently of the whole mountain itself, must have 

 suffered a considerable diminution. Still Ben- 

 Nevis, as is well known, overtops the whole of 

 its neighbours, although many of them are very 

 high. In looking from the summit, on those 

 particularly which lie to the south, it is impos- 

 sible to avoid being struck with the resemblance, 

 which, from their peculiar shape, they bear to the 

 waves of the oqean agitated by a violent tempest. 

 Such an appearance may give birth in the fertile 

 imagination to a variety of curious geological 

 conjectures. The effect, also, of elevation in 

 diminishing apparent distance, is extremely sen- 

 sible from Ben-Nevis. Thus, the islands towards 

 the sound of Mull, although at the distance of 

 '* thirty miles, seem as if placed under our feet. 

 I may further remark, that so far as I could 

 judge from my own sensations, the rarity of the 

 air at this altitude, had no perceptible influence 

 on respiration. Its effect, indeed, must very fre- 

 quently be counteracted by a circumstance, which 

 probably is not duly attended to, or remarked ; 

 that the agitation of the atmosphere, either sensi- 

 bly or imperceptibly, by those causes which pro- 

 duce its motion, may occasion a state of it, differ- 

 cnt from what would take place, were the equili- 

 brium according to the laws of statics, to exist 

 as in perfect stillness. The state here alluded to, 

 resembles that which is produced, by shaking to- 

 gether liquors of different specific gravity ; the 

 heavier particles may occupy in turn, the higher 



