340 ON THE HIGHLANDS. 



PRECIPICE. 



Imagine a precipitous front of rock, at least 

 1500 feet high, bending forwards at many of its 

 points, with a threatening aspect, and extending 

 itself to a distance of almost two miles, with en- 

 ormous projecting masses or abutments, which 

 fill the great re-entering angle of the mountain, 

 and. divide it into vast recesses or aisles of the 

 wildest aspect. Of this stupendous and impres- 

 sive object, the grand and singularly picturesque 

 feature is what may be called the angularity of its 

 appearance, both as a whole, and in its subordi- 

 nate parts. The face of the rock, in the progress 

 of waste and decomposition, is every where fur- 

 rowed or fretted by lines, which at a distance 

 seem to shape it into innumerable fasciculi of 

 small columns or fluted pillars, resembling colum- 

 nar distinct concretions. These again are joined 

 together in an endless variety of groups ascend- 

 ing into pointed summits and serrated ridges, 

 which form the most elegant mountain-lines, and 

 which accumulate in the projections and recesses, 

 tow r ering successively behind each other, till the 

 whole terminate at the summit of the mountain. 

 In this manner, the general outline of the pre- 

 cipice, as it strikes the eye in a single coup-d'oeil, 

 from the position I have mentioned, may be as- 



