Page:A Companion and Useful Guide to the Beauties of Scotland.djvu/308

290 the case, this fir wood would be a vast treasure to the owner of it. Had I not been in some fear for the carriage, from the roughness of the road, I should have enjoyed the drive through Rannoch amazingly. By and by I came to the bed of a large burn, another Calder burn with respect to its bed of stones, and the entrance into it even worse. Perceiving higher up the burn, a plank laid from bank to bank, I got out of the chaise, and made the best of my way to it. I found it in a very tottering state; but it was better than being in the carriage, for which I trembled, fearing it would be shaken to pieces every jolt it received, in going up and down over the stones in the burn's bed. That burn, in hard rains, rises suddenly to a prodigious height; and when I meant to return, it shut me up for a day, as there was no possibility of getting through it. As I approached the head of the lake, the district of Rannoch appeared to be entirely shut up from the whole world besides, by mountain upon mountain all around, and no means of escape; which indeed is nearly the case, except for Highland men and birds. It is true, there is an outlet to a flat towards Glen Coe, nearly west, by the river Gauer, that winds round some mountains