10. Eastward from the Badenoch Moor, along the south of Strathspey, stretches the lofty and massive range of the Cairngorm Mountains. In these the rivers Don and Dee, after rising within a few miles of each other, and then being sundered by mountain masses, enter the sea close together, thereby recalling the similar courses of the Wye and Severn.

11. The upper valley of the Dee contains some of the grandest scenery in the Highlands. Round its source tower Cairntoul, Cairngorm, Ben Macdhui, and Ben Avon, confronted on its southern bank by the lofty peaks of Ben Dearg, Ben-y-gloe, Glas Mhiel, and Lochnagar.

12. These and other giants of the Grampians stand like a wall encircling the Lowland plains of Perth and Forfar (or Angus), and cutting off all access from the valley of the Dee to the basin of the Tay. Of the latter we have now to speak.

LOCH NA GAR.

(A Mountain on Deeside.)

Away, ye gay landscapes, ye gardens of roses!
In you let the minions* of luxury rove;
Restore me the rocks, where the snow flake reposes,
Though still they are sacred to freedom and love:

Yet Caledonia, beloved are thy mountains,

Round their white summits though elements war; Though cataracts foam'stead of smooth-flowing fountains, I sigh for the valley of dark Loch na Gar.

Ah! there my young footsteps in infancy wander'd;
My cap was the bonnet, my cloak was the plaid;
On chieftains long perish'd my memory ponder'd,
As daily I strode through the pine-cover'd glade.
I sought not my home till the day's dying glory
Gave place to the rays of the bright polar star;
For fancy was cheer'd by traditional story,

Disclosed by the natives of dark Loch na Gar.

Minions, spoilt children, persons given to ease and selfindulgence.

"Shades of the dead! have I not heard your voices Rise on the night-rolling breath of the gale?" Surely the soul of the hero rejoices,

And rides on the wind, o'er his own Highland vale.
Round Loch na Gar while the stormy mist gathers,
Winter presides in his cold icy car:

Clouds there encircle the forms of my fathers;
They dwell in the tempests of dark Loch na Gar.

"Ill-starr'd, though brave, did no visions foreboding
Tell you that fate had forsaken your cause?"
Ah! were you destined to die at Culloden,

Victory crown'd not your fall with applause :
Still were you happy in death's earthy slumber,

You rest with your clan in the caves of Braemar ;
The pibroch resounds, to the piper's loud number,
Your deeds on the echoes of dark Loch na Gar.

Years have roll'd on, Loch na Gar, since I left you,
Years must elapse ere I tread you again;
Nature of verdure and flowers has bereft you,
Yet still are you dearer than Albion's plain.
England thy beauties are tame and domestic

To one who has roved o'er the mountains afar! Oh for the crags that are wild and majestic ! The steep frowning glories of dark Loch na Gar. -BYRON.

CHAPTER VII.

THE TAY.

1. Tumbling from a deep glen in the Breadalbane Mountains to the east of Loch Awe-head, the Tay flows eastward through the lake of its own name, which though only a mile and a half wide, is fourteen miles long. Soon after issuing thence, it is joined on its left, or north bank, by the Tummel.

2. The Tummel, after hurrying from Loch Rannoch, which has itself received the waters of Loch Ericht to its north, and Loch Lydoch to its west, is swollen by the waters of the Garry. This river should be noted,

because the deep gorge, called the pass of Killiecrankie, by which it cuts its way through the Athol Mountains, offers the only high road from south to north through the middle of the Highlands. Following the Garry up to its source in Badenoch Moor, this high road bends northward by the pass of Dalwhinnie into Strathspey. At the highest point of this high road may be seen within a few yards, the Garry flowing southward from its source, and another rill flowing north-westward into the Spey.

3. Having thus gathered up the waters of the southern Highlands, the Tay winds in a southerly course across Strathmore, and enters its Firth. It is here joined by the Earn, flowing from the hills on the north-east of Ben Lomond.

4. In its course of 110 miles the Tay drains 2283 square miles, and pours into the sea more water than any other river in Great Britain. It is famous for its salmon, but useless for navigation above the tidal limit. Its Firth, however, thirty miles long, is of great commercial importance.

5. Strathmore, through which its lower course lies, is a rich level plain, stretching for ninety miles in a south-easterly direction from the county of Kincardine, where it is only a mile broad, to Stirling, where it has a breadth of sixteen miles. It lies only 100 feet above the sea, and contains some of the richest soil in Scotland. Screened on the north-west by the Highlands, it is flanked on the south-east by the Sidlaw Hills in Forfar, and by the Ochill Hills in Perthshire.

6. The last Highland river which claims our attention, the Forth, though far smaller, is of more importance on account of its magnificent Firth, which is fifty miles long, and in parts eleven broad. The sources of the Forth are in the hills which tower above the eastern shores of Loch Lomond. The waters of the romantic and richly-wooded Loch Katrine are poured into the Forth through a chain of

smaller lakes, by its feeder the Teith. As the river quits its mother lake, it winds among the wooded knolls and tower-like cliffs of the far-famed glen known as The Trossachs,

66 Where, gleaming with the setting sun,
One burnished sheet of living gold,
Loch Katrine lay beneath him roll'd,
High on the south huge Ben Venue,
Down on the lake in masses threw,

Crags, knolls, and mounds, confusedly hurled-
The fragments of an earlier world."

-SCOTT.

7. The fine old university city of Aberdeen, built between the mouths of the Dee and Don, offers very varied employment to her 105,000 citizens. Besides manufacturing cotton, silk, and wool, she exports fine cattle, fattened on the rich grazing land of Buchan to her north, builds iron steamships, and exports slate and granite. Peterhead, a little to the north, the easternmost town in Scotland, is the starting point of a whaling fleet from Dundee and Aberdeen, which sails northward to Greenland, in April for seals, in summer for whales.

8. North of the Firth of Tay, in the Carse of Gowrie, stands a still larger town, Dundee, with 140,000 inhabitants, employed in working up jute, hemp, linen, sailcloth, and sacking, or on shipping, and other kindred work. Dundee is also famed for its confectionery; and shares with Peterhead the profits of whaling and seal-hunting.

9. At the mouth of the Tay stands a dangerous rock surmounted by the Bell Lighthouse. Ages ago the Abbot of Arbroath, or Aberbrothock, placed here a bell to warn ships of coming dangers. The following poem of Southey refers to this:

THE INCHCAPE ROCK.

No stir in the air, no stir in the sea,
The ship was still as she could be,

Her sails from heaven received no motion,

Her keel was steady in the ocean.

Without either sign or sound of their shock,
The waves flow'd over the Inchcape Rock;
So little they rose, so little they fell,
They did not move the Inchcape Bell.

The good old Abbot of Aberbrothock
Had placed that bell on the Inchcape Rock ;
On a buoy in the storm it floated and swung,
And over the waves its warning rung.

When the rock was hid by the surge's swell,
The mariners heard the warning bell,
And then they knew the perilous Rock,
And blest the Abbot of Aberbrothock.

The sun in heaven was shining gay,
All things were joyful on that day;

The sea-birds scream'd as they wheelèd round,
And there was joyaunce* in their sound.

The float of the Inchcape Bell was seen
A darker speck on the ocean green;
Sir Ralph the Rover walk'd the deck,
And he fixed his eye on the darker speck.
He felt the cheering power of spring;
It made him whistle, it made him sing;
His heart was mirthful to excess,—
But the Rover's mirth was wickedness.

His eye was on the Inchcape float
Quoth he, "My men, put out the boat,
And row me to the Inchcape Rock,
And I'll plague the Abbot of Aberbrothock."

The boat is lower'd, the boatmen row,
And to the Inchcape Rock they go ;

Sir Ralph bent over from the boat,

And cut the warning-bell from the float.

Down sank the Bell with a gurgling sound,

The bubbles rose and burst around;

Quoth Sir Ralph, "The next who comes to the Rock Will not bless the Abbot of Aberbrothock."