Page:A Companion and Useful Guide to the Beauties of Scotland.djvu/305

Rh miles in length, nearly straight, and about two and a half in breadth. The lake nearly fills fifteen miles of the space; and its shores are beautifully indented by sweeps of mountains, and wooded points of land, running far into the water: some islands also add much to its beauty. The mountains on the north-side are very high; and their steep sides, wherever the crags will permit it, are cultivated; producing barley, oats, and grass, with wood creeping up the rocks where cultivation is denied. On the south of the lake is another ridge of mountains; some of them little inferior to the proud Schiehallion: these mountains are finely covered by extensive woods of firs and birch; even some of the highest crags are thus beautifully clothed. As I advanced towards the town of Kinloch, at the foot of the lake, I passed on a narrow high shelf, hanging over a precipice to the river Tumel, deep below. The road is but just sufficiently wide for a carriage, and no fence whatever on the precipice side of it. On the other hand are mountains to the sky, shivering from their tops, with huge loose pieces of rocks lying from the summits to the bases, ready at the least shock to crush the passenger beneath them. To be in that pass was frightful,