32 ABERDEEN UNIVERSITY LIFE [ch. n. 
fine. On the northern side of the mountain some 
Alpine lakes occurred, in which I could not find 
anything but Sparganium natans , and a few poor 
specimens of Caltha palustris , which plant I also 
saw in the rivulets. Holding still a northerly 
direction, I crossed a broken plain, and ascended a 
gentle acclivity, at the end of which I found a 
larger plain, which I also crossed. At the end of 
this plain I came to an opening which led into a 
deep valley, bounded by rocks and rapid gravelly 
slopes. Descending by this valley, which I found 
very long and very rugged, into a plain which led 
to a stream of considerable size, and evidently a 
tributary of the Spey, I at length reached the low 
ground, and directed myself westward.” 
When alone in such a situation as he thus 
describes, he appears never to have suffered from 
any feeling of loneliness. His sense of reverential 
enjoyment was too engrossing and overpowering to 
admit of such a feeling. “In the mountains he did 
feel his faith ” most intensely—his faith in himself, 
in Nature, and in God, who was never absent from 
his thoughts when alone with Nature. Indeed, in 
his enjoyment of Nature a feeling of the Divine 
presence was ever predominant. 
After spending the night at the base of Ben 
Macdhui, he proceeded to Strathspey, and spent 
the next night at Kingussie. “In the dusk,” he 
writes, “I began to feel very melancholy, and to 
prevent this disagreeable sensation, went out and 
fell in with an old man with whom I chatted for 
some time. I then returned, drank some toddy 
with my landlord, and wrote the greater part of 
