of Edinburgh , Session 1872-73. 
17 
from Arrochar, with an English friend, round the base, up to the 
summit, down again a great way, then up again over a lofty spur 
into an upland valley, of one of the neighbouring mountains, 
Ben-Arnen ; which is very seldom visited, although it is very 
interesting in structure, and 3050 feet in height, and commands a 
magnificent view in all directions. Descending into the heart of 
the valley, in which there are many fine precipices, we twice came 
suddenly near the brink of these, as a stranger is apt to do in 
going down hill on such mica-slate mountains ; but the instinct of 
experience forewarned us of our approach to danger, and enabled 
us to avoid it by a flank route. On returning to town, I tried to 
trace this excursion on the best of our ordinary maps, hut in vain ; 
for in some our mountain was not to be seen at all, while in others 
it was put in evidently ad libitum , and in not one was it named. 
In the Ordnance shaded 1-inch map, however, every valley, every 
spur, ravine, grassy slope and precipice is given so precisely that I 
am sure I could furnish any stranger to the mountain with a route 
upon that map by which he could safely follow our track. All 
praise, therefore, to Sir Henry James and his faithful assistants, 
who could little have thought that their work, in so remote, wild, 
and little known a corner, would he subjected to such minute 
criticism from so improbable a quarter. It is not in his depart- 
ment that the blame lies for the hideous delay in the progress of 
the Ordnance Survey of Scotland, and for our not having long ago 
reaped all the advantages of its completion. Very far from it. 
But what are we to say of the blindness, and deafness, and mis- 
placed economy of successive Governments, who, possessing such 
an admirable instrument as the Ordnance Survey Office, refuse to 
make use of it, to the full extent of its power, in one of the 
most important and most attractive of all branches of civil 
administration ? And what has become of the nobility, gentry, 
men of science, and others in Scotland, who in former days 
did not sit so tamely under disregard of their just claims upon 
the State? 
The publication of the maps upon the 6-inch scale is somewhat 
farther advanced. These include, besides the country mapped on 
the 1-inch scale, all Perthshire, most of Aberdeen, all Banff and 
Nairn, Can tyre, and the southern half of the other peninsula of 
VOL. VIII. 
