196 EXTRACTS FROM HIS WORKS [ch. vii. 
spread out by the margin of the river, which glides 
along in its winding course, emitting a pleasing 
murmur, excepting which the ear catches no sound; 
for the air is still, and even the hair-grass waves 
not its slender panicle. The cattle are feeding on 
the after-grass; here and there a peasant is seen in 
the fields, or near the few cottages scattered over 
the valley; but otherwise all is very still, and in 
the gentle beauty of the scene one hardly sees a 
place for human wickedness. If it is not a paradise 
we gaze upon, it is a scene well fitted to remind us 
of how much happiness our earthly habitation 
might yield were it always illuminated by a sense 
of the Divine presence .—Natural History of Dee- 
side, p. 49. 
24.— Lochnagar. 
Still onward, amidst woods and mountains, and 
here and there fields, yielding the staple food of the 
Scot. Let us again look southward, “ o’er moors 
and mosses mony,” to the never-tiring glories of 
Lochnagar, which is now much nearer to us than 
when we first saw it. Like Edinburgh, it may be 
viewed with interest from any station. For my 
part, I could gaze a quarter of an hour on either 
every day of the year without getting tired. There, 
proudly pre-eminent over all around, just as it 
settled when it was heaved up from the abyss, it 
stands in solemn grandeur, its ridges wreathed in 
