pened some thunder going, an' I've been thinking ye'd been rale terrified !"-adding, "I once came through in a thunder-storm, and I thought at every clap, all the mountains were coming in together upon me. An' indeed, I was fairly frightened mysel'-while all the ladies 1 was driving began to scream and cry." I can readily imagine that few places in the world can be better suited to the full effect in sublimity and fearfulness, of a play of lightning, and the thunder's crash.

But Glencoe owes not less to its classic and historic associations, than to the wildness and sublimity of its scenery, for the interest with which it is invested in the eyes of the traveller. In the massacre of the Macdonalds, in 1691, it is the scene of a tragedy of treachery and blood, familiar to all who have read the annals of the country; and as the reputed birth-place of Ossian, it is not without its attractions to the lover of song. A small lake in the centre of it gives rise to the stream of Cona, so often mentioned in his poems; and many of the similes, used with such effect in his writings, are drawn from the imagery here beheld in its varied accidents of sunshine and storm. Any one who has gazed upon the lofty precipices of Glencoe, and the unnumbered water-channels grooving their surface, will readily apprehend the force of the figure in which the conflict of battle is compared to the "sound of the thousand streams that meet in Cona's Vale, after a stormy night." Not only a thousand, but literally tens of thousands, 1 doubt not, might be numbered after a continued rain, as they pour their

AND SURROUNDING SCENERY.

175

foaming floods into the gorge below. Every feature of the scenes around is well suited to the sublimity and gloom of high-wrought and tragic poesy; and to whosesoever genius we are indebted for "the songs of Ossian," the writer did well to blend with his inspirations, imagery and impressions drawn from the forms and aspects which nature here assumes.

176

STEAMBOAT MAID OF MORVEN.

LETTER XLIV.

PASSAGE FROM LOCH LEVEN TO INVERNESS.

Join the steamboat "Maid of Morven on Linne Loch-Fort William and Gordonsburgh-Ben Nevis-Caledonian canal-Neptune's stairs-Loch Lochy and Loch Oich-Fort Augustus— Loch Ness and the Falls of Foyers-Country around Inverness -appearance and population of the town-Comfortable quarters at the Caledonian Hotel.

DEAR VIRGINIA,

Caledonian Hotel, Inverness,
August 23d, 1832.

Immediately on my return yesterday morning, to Ballahulish from Glencoe, I crossed Loch Leven, an arm of Loch Linne, by the ferry opposite, with the intention of walking to Fort William, a distance of fourteen miles, having been informed that the steamboat from Oban would not pass along before seven o'clock, and it then being only a little after mid-day.

I had scarce accomplished four miles, however, at the end of an hour, before I discovered the smoke of the steamer some few miles below, and being then at a ferry on Loch Linne, from which passengers are put on board, I waited her arrival, and soon after was safely on the deck of "the maid of Morven," once again enjoying the company of my friend Capt. Bolton. We passed by Fort William, and the town of Gordonsburgh, with Ben Nevis in full view

CALEDONIAN CANAL.

177

at six o'clock. The fortress was first erected in the time of Cromwell, by Gen. Monk, and built only of turf. It was rebuilt of stone in the reign of William III., receiving his name, while the village of Gordonsburgh, then first formed, was called Marysburgh, in honour of the Queen. The scenery is wild and sublime in its mountain groupings, and the vicinity is memorable in the history of the Highlands, and interesting, from the remains of the castle of Inverlochy, supposed in ancient times, to have been a regal abode, another ruin, which there is reason to believe was once a residence of Banquo.

Two miles above Fort William is the commencement of the great Caledonian canal, by which the navigation of the German sea and the Western Ocean are connected, without the tedious and dangerous coasting of the north of Scotland, through a chain of lakes, connected in its route. The distance from Linne Loch in the west, to the Frith of Moray at this place, in the east, is sixty-one miles, thirty-eight miles of the route being through Loch Lochy, Loch Oich, and Loch Ness, and the remaining twentythree, the cutting of the canal. The first mile from Loch Linne, is a succession of locks, which from their magnitude and number, are called " Neptune's Staircase." By these, vessels ascend from the west to the general level of the canal and lakes; and as several hours are required for the passage of the steamboat through them, the arrangements are such, that this is accomplished at night, while the passengers are lodged at an Inn at the upper lock, to which they walk, leaving their luggage on board. The

canal is one hundred and twenty feet wide at the top, fifty feet at the bottom, and twenty feet deep, and the locks one hundred and seventy feet long, and forty wide, thus allowing the passage of a small frigate, or of a merchantman of the largest class.

At day-break this morning we were summoned again to the boat, which had attained the summit level. The morning was wet, and the mountain covered with mist and clouds; once only we had a full view of Ben Nevis, whose summit and northern side was still marked with beds of snow. This is the loftiest mountain in Great Britain, being more than four thousand three hundred feet in height; after having seen the Cordilleras of South America, the mountains of Hawaii, and other islands of the Pacific, and even the ridges of the Alleghany, in the middle states of the American Union, there is nothing very imposing in the loftiness of Ben Nevis.

Loch Lochy ten miles in length, and little more than one in breadth, and Loch Oich three miles long, and a half mile broad, are not particularly interesting in the scenery of their shores. They are bordered principally by mountains covered with moors and naked sheep walks with glens between them, running to the north and south, memorable in history as the abodes of clans whose names are still the general cognomen of their inhabitants.

At the entrance of Loch Ness from Fort William stand the town and fortifications of Fort Augustus. It is a neat and pretty place, surrounded by much delightful scenery. We were amused chiefly there, while waiting the passage of the boat from the locks