MACKIE — THE PARALLEL ItOADS OE GLEN EOT. 



123 



at the commencement of the valley, since the rivers, which form the 

 Hoy, rise in mountain-torrents, forming a junction in the middle of 

 the valley." A low hill of granite skirts the boundary between the 

 source of the Spey and the valley of the Hoy. At the foot of this 

 hill, in slightly elevated boggy plains, is found Loch Spey, the water 

 from which, by a declivity for some time scarcely perceptible, runs 

 eastward through Badenoch to fall into the Moray Firth. The 

 western end of the boggy plain stretches for a few hundred yards be- 

 yond the head of Loch Spey, and then descends by a sudden step 

 into the upper valley of Glen Hoy. This valley is of oval form, 

 about four miles in length, and one or more in breadth, being 

 bounded on opposite sides by very high mountains. From these 

 descend two streams, which unite about the middle of the valley to 

 form the Hoy. From this junction the water flows with a moderate 

 velocity for the space of two miles, when the Glen suddenly contracts 

 and terminates in a rocky hill of low elevation. The water, forcing 

 its way for some distance through a narrow pass between approach- 

 ing rocks, enters a second glen — the lower Glen Hoy. It is in this 

 latter that the "roads " are chiefly seen; nor on entering the upper 

 from the lower glen would it be suspected that any similar appear- 

 ances existed in it. A line however may be observed on the glen-side 

 extending from the junction, which forms the Hoy along the face 

 of a low hill towards the elevation in which Loch Spey lies. "A 

 careful examination of this line by spirit-level shows it to consist of 

 a level narrow terrace, which, if prolonged eastward, would cut the 

 perpendicular above Loch Spey, and if continued westward, would 

 meet the summit of the flat rock that forms the division between the 



Hoy. 



Pig. 2. — Section of Glen Hoy, showing the contour and the levels of the three 

 " parallel roads/' 1, 2, 3. 



higher and lower Glen Hoy." This summit is on a level with the 

 Uppermost of the lines in the lower glen, the terrace being in facl a 

 prolongation of that line. No other terrace or line is found in the 

 Upper valley. . . . Wherever the natural rock comas to Light, these 



