Page:Three Years in Europe.djvu/91

Rh Still through the gap the struggling river toils; And still below the horrid cauldron boils."

Soon after we reached Inverness.

Inverness is a small town containing about 12,000 inhabitants. We stopped here two days and started for Aberdeen on the morning of the 9th August. Aberdeen is considered the third city in Scotland, and is really a very beautiful place (population 80,000). It is called the "granite city," as almost all the houses are built of that stone, a circumstance which gives the city an air of freshness and beauty such as you do not find in any other place. There are immense granite mountains in the adjoining country.

In Aberdeen we saw the spacious market, the noble pier stretching far into the sea as well as some other places worth visiting. On the 10th of August we left Aberdeen and reached Edinburgh by train at 10

On the 15th September I went from Edinburgh to Loch Leven, in the midst of which is the Loch Leven Castle, where Mary, Queen of Scots, was imprisoned for a time. From Kinros, a town on the shores of the Loch, I went by a boat to the island in which are the ruins of the ancient castle. From a distance you can see the tower of the castle, peeping out from among the luxuriant vegetation that covers and beautifies the little island. And when you reach there you are at once impressed with the loneliness of the place. There is not a single living creature to be seen, and the only sound to be