Page:A Companion and Useful Guide to the Beauties of Scotland.djvu/233

Rh sprouting from every crevice, and clinging to every stone which is seen through the arch of the bridge, and in front of it. On the left side of the bridge, on a very high rocky bank, are tall ash trees, birch, beach, abele trees, and mountain ash; some carelessly spreading over the side of the bridge, branching down to the arch; others from the shelves of the rocks; with huge trunks, and flowing branches rising from their bare fibrous roots, shooting to an incredible distance, from crevice to crevice, in search of nutriment, where the human eye sees no soil: likewise the hazel, the alder, and the crooked maple, with all sorts of shrubs feathering down the rough bank to the water's edge; and to complete the beauty of the bank, a broken cascade tumbles heedless of the havock it incessantly makes of the shrubs and plants over which it dashes. The fore-ground of the landscape might be the right bank, which is broken ground, with some pieces of rock and small shrubs hanging about it.

I was grieved to quit such a charming spot as Dulsie bridge; but I had sixteen miles to travel to Fort George, and the horses had already brought me twenty miles, which, on the whole, would be a great day's work. On leaving the