GLIMPSES OF WESTEEN EUEOPE. 
189 
rustic bridge we cross the classic Teith, The narrow fertile valley, the 
villas and cottages by the way, and the grim old mountains above and beyond. 
Already we touch and wind our way along the base of the noblest of them 
all. More than a thousand years ago, a Gaelic legend says, an angel of fire 
appeared to the people on the top of it; since which time it has been known 
as Berdedi^ the Hill of God. And there is the narrow, silvery Loch-Achray ! 
The quick-rolling wheels have borne us many miles on the enchanting way. 
“There,” says the driver, “is Lanric Mead !” Where? “Just there, slop¬ 
ing to the Loch.” In a trice I have left the coach, leaped the fence and am 
gathering butter-cups from the midst of the mead. 
“ The gathering place is Lanric Mead 1 
Speed, stranger, speed,” 
shouts a fellow traveler; and with singular aptnes, too, for it is likely to re¬ 
quire the legs and wind of a Bull-Run soldier to overtake the coach. * * 
Suddenly we come upon the neat and substantial Trosachs Hotel; 
and while my fellows go in to drink their ale, I walk on, gathering mementoes. 
* * * A flash as of burnished silver in the sun ! Is is possible ? Have 
I walked so far that I have really stumbled upon the lake in advance of all 
my companions ? Aye, Loch-Katrine, in all the glory of noon-tide ! 
“ With promonotory, creek and bay. 
And islands that, empurpled bright, 
Float amid the glorious light, 
• And mountains, that like giants stand. 
To sentinel enchanted land. 
High on the south, huge Ben-venue, 
A wildering forest, feathering o’er 
His ruined sides and summit hoar ; 
While on the north, through middle air, 
Ben-an heaves high his forehead bare 1” 
No picture of the Old World, or New, has so enchanted me with the wild¬ 
ness of its beauty and the romance of its story. 
* * •je- driver’s piping horn ! The crack of his whip, and the rum¬ 
bling of wheels ! My companions alight, amazed to find how they have been 
outstripped by me, and all enthusiastic at thought of a voyage upon the Loch. 
We go aboard; the bell rings out its warning, and the shore is left behind. 
Katrine was formerly the favorite resort of robbers of whom Rob Roy was 
chief. Eilan Varnoch, the famous “ Ellen’s Isle ” of “ The Lady of the Lake,” 
just before us, is the very spot where the freebooters divided their plunder. 
Music ! The favorite music of Scotland—the bagpipe, I mean. An old 
Highlander, whose head is white with the frosts of no less than seventy 
winters, seems bound to perfect the illusion of our senses and to convince us 
that we are really in the midst of times five hundred years a-agone. 
The water of Loch Katrine is cold and pure. The city of Glasgow, Similes 
distant, is supplied with 60,000,000 gallons daily. This immense volume of 
water is carried through great iron pipes and through seventy tunnels, with 
an aggregate length of thirteen miles, and across deep valleys, which last are 
either spanned by aqueduct bridges consisting of iron troughs supported by 
rubble stone, or meandered by syphon pipes four feet in diameter. It was 
certainly an herculian work to span such valleys and pierce such mountains, 
and could not have cost less than seven, perhaps ten, millions of dollars. 
We touch the western shore after a most charming voyage of nearly ten 
miles, and again take the stage. A rough, picturesque country. Loch Lo¬ 
mond ! largest of the Scotish lakes. A beautiful sheet of water. 
The shrill whistle of the steamer hurries us down the cliff to the shore, and 
in a few moments we are fairly under way. Loch Lomond is some twenty- 
four miles in length, from north to south, six to eight miles in width at the 
southern extremity, narrowing down to one mile at the north, and has an 
average depth ranging from sixty to four hundred feet; the greater depth 
being at the north end, where it is narrowest. It is shut in by high moun¬ 
tains on the north, and throughout its whole extent is dotted with islands. 
As we proceed southward the scenery gradually changes. The islands in¬ 
crease in number, the mountains diminish in altitude, and the beach widens. 
