INTRODUCTION. 
XV 
miles beyond which, at the village of Corfachy, is the en- 
trance to Glen Clova. 
Glen Clova is a beautiful pastoral valley, about 15 miles 
in length, with the South Esk winding through it. Both 
sides of the river are cultivated, and its banks are studded 
with numerous farms and cottages. The mountains that 
form its boundary gradually increase in altitude, and in the 
upper part few of the summits are below 3000 feet. The 
little hamlet named the Kirktown or Milltown of Clova, is ten 
miles above Cortachy and five below Acharne, and consists of 
a few cottages, a church, a mill, and a small inn. That little 
inn has, however, sheltered many a botanist, and no doubt 
many an eye has been gladdened by its sight after a long 
fatiguing ramble among the mountains. 
Almost opposite to the Kirktown, on the west side of the 
Glen, rises the mountain of Carlowie, and farther up forming 
a part of the same range, the Bassies and the Scorie. Long 
ridges or “ shanks ” extend from these into Glen Piosen,* 
with intervening streams, whose rich verdant banks pasture 
many flocks. The summits are adorned with the beautiful 
Azalea procurnbens, Celraria nivalis , and other botanical 
rarities, and the rivulets descending their rocky fronts in 
numerous little waterfalls, are prolific in objects of interest 
to the enquiring mind. 
Three streams descend from the mountain above the Kirk- 
town of Clova, and unite before reaching the hamlet. The 
centre one is called the “ Deaf-bum,' on account of its 
channel being deepened towards the top, and choked up 
with vegetation. It has its source among some springs be T 
low Loch Brandy. The stream on the left is designated the 
« Corrie-burn because it leaps over the rocks into the 
Corrie from the table-lands above ; and that on the right is 
* Glen Prosen is a lovely Highland glen, but its mountains being less 
steep and rocky than those of Clova, are consequently not so rich in the 
rarer alpine plants; the mountain at the head of the glen, called the Mair, 
is, however, apparently deserving of a better investigation than it has yet 
received. 
