Page:A Companion and Useful Guide to the Beauties of Scotland.djvu/287

Rh which is an hollow, and a lofty crescent rising from it, with its high pointed horns; joining to one of which are towers of huge rocks, furrowed by continual torrents; with hollows and chasms filled with snow, forming a rare contrast in summer, with the black and grey rocks of the crescent, and other huge masses adjoining. The whole, to an eye below, appears to be capped with soft verdure, except where the never-melting patches of snow keep possession. The summit, however, of Ben Nivis, I am told, is a bed of white pebbles, some of them beautiful. There are but few who attain so high a station, it being a very laborious journey to climb that mountain to the top.

I learnt, in those parts, another instance of the great love a Highland man has for whisky. A lady of fashion, having conquered that ascent, before she quitted it, left on purpose a bottle of whisky on the summit: when she returned to the fort, she laughingly mentioned that circumstance before some Highland men, as a piece of carelessness; one of whom slipped away, and mounted to the pinnacle of 4370 feet, above the level of the fort, to gain the prize of the bottle of whisky, and brought it down in triumph.