206 EXTRACTS FROM HIS WORKS [ch. tii. 
beyond Ballater, topped by the conical summit of 
the more distant Mount Keen, singularly white in 
the pale rays of the western sun. Low ranges 
extend from it, until there rises, in the south, the 
massive form of Lochnagar—both its corries con¬ 
spicuously displayed; the western illuminated, the 
eastern in deep impenetrable shade, veiled by a filmy 
grey vapour. A most beautiful undulated ridgy 
descent leads the eye to the Glen Ballater moun¬ 
tains, the Beallach-bhui, and the Braemar hills as 
far as the upper part of Glen Ey. The great 
mountain stands conspicuous in its massy breadth 
and towering height, as if upheaved beyond its 
ordinary elevation. At its base, near Loch Muic, is 
a large rounded liill; but elsewhere, all down to the 
Dee, the ground seems low, presenting only some 
undulations, which, although really of some con¬ 
siderable height, are scarcely noticeable from our 
present station. On this side of the Dee, the 
position of which 5 is known only by recollection, is 
a range of low hills, undulated in its outline, but 
high enough to prevent us from seeing those hills 
that seemed mountains to us as we traversed the 
valley. Where the Braemar mingle with the Atholl 
ranges in the extreme distance, the horizon is next 
bounded by a roundish hill, only about five miles 
distant. Then Ben Aun rising behind, with its long 
unwaved, but curiously knobbed ridge, leads us to 
the blaze of the western sun, just passing behind 
the broad head of the Bho-dhoun, which, at only 
the distance of two miles, seems continuous with 
