greater part of it runs along a rock, levelled with great labour and exact nefs, near the water-fide,

Moft of this day's journey was very pleafant. The day, though bright, was not hot; and the appearance of the country, if I had not seen the Peak, would have been wholly new. We went upon a furface fo hard and level, that we had little care to hold the bridle, and were therefore at full leifure for contemplation. On the left were high and fteepy rocks shaded with birch, the hardy native of the north, and covered with fern or heath. On the right the limpid waters of Lough Nefs were beating their bank, and waving their furface by a gentle agitation, Beyond them were rocks fometimes covered with verdure, and fometimes towering in horrid nakednefs. Now and then we efpied a little corn-field, which ferved to imprefs more ftrongly the general barrennefs,

Lough Nefs is about twenty-four miles long, and from one mile to two miles broad. It is remark, able that Boethius, in his description of Scotland, gives it twelve miles of breadth, When hiftorians or geographers exhibit falfe accounts of places far diftant, they may be forgiven, because they can tell but what they are told; and that their accounts exceed the truth may be juftly fuppofed, because moft men exaggerate to others, if not to themselves: but Boethius lived at no great distance; if he never faw the lake, he must have been very incurious, and if he had feen it, his veracity yielded to very flight temptar

tions.

Lough Nefs, though not twelve miles broad, is a very remarkable diffufion of water without iflands. VOL. VIII.

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It fills a large hollow between two ridges of high rocks, being fupplied partly by the torrents which fall into it on either fide, and partly, as is fuppofed, by springs at the bottom. Its water is remarkably clear and pleasant, and is imagined by the natives to be medicinal. We were told, that it is in fome places a hundred and forty fathom deep, a profundity scarcely credible, and which probably those that relate it have never founded. Its fish are falmon, trout, and pike.

It was faid at Fort Auguftus, that Lough Nefs is open in the hardeft winters, though a lake not far from it is covered with ice. In difcuffing thefe exceptions from the course of nature, the firft question is, whether the fact be justly stated. That which is strange is delightful, and a pleasing errour is not wil lingly detected. Accuracy of narration is not very common, and there are few fo rigidly philofophical, as not to represent as perpetual, what is only frequent, or as conftant, what is really cafual. If it be true that Lough Nefs never freezes, it is either fheltered by its high banks from the cold blafts, and expofed only to thofe winds which have more power to agitate than congeal; or it is kept in perpetual motion by the rush of streams from the rocks that enclofe it. Its profundity, though it fhould be fuch as is reprefented, can have little part in this exemption; for though deep wells are not frozen, because their water is fecluded from the external air, yet where a wide furface is expofed to the full influence of a freezing atmosphere, I know not why the depth should keep it open. Natural philofophy is now one of the favourite ftudies of the

7.

Scottish

Scottish nation, and Lough Nefs well deferves to be diligently examined.

The road on which we travelled, and which was itself a fource of entertainment, is made along the rock, in the direction of the lough, fometimes by breaking off protuberances, and fometimes by cutting the great mass of stone to a confiderable depth. The fragments are piled in a loose wall on either fide, with apertures left at very fhort spaces, to give a paffage to the wintry currents. Part of it is bordered with low trees, from which our guides gathered nuts, and would have had the appearance of an English lane, except that an English lane is almost always dirty. It has been made with great labour, but has this advantage, that it cannot, without equal labour, be broken up.

Within our fight there were goats feeding or playing. The mountains have red deer, but they came not within view; and if what is faid of their vigilance and fubtlety be true, they have fome claim to that palm of wisdom, which the eastern philofopher, whom Alexander interrogated, gave to thofe beafts which live furtheft from men.

Near the way, by the water-fide, we espied a cot, tage. This was the firft Highland hut that I had feen; and as our business was with life and manners, we were willing to vifit it. To enter a habitation without leave, feems to be not confidered here as rudenefs or intrufion. The old laws of hospitality still give this licence to a stranger.

A hut is constructed with loose stones, ranged for the most part with fome tendency to circularity. It must be placed where the wind cannot act upon

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it

with

with violence, because it has no cement; and where the water will run eafily away, because it has no floor. but the naked ground. The wall, which is commonly about fix feet high, declines from the perpendicular a little inward. Such rafters as can be procured are then raised for a roof, and covered with heath, which' makes a strong and warm thatch, kept from flying off by ropes of twisted heath, of which the ends, reaching. from the centre of the thatch to the top of the wall, are held firm by the weight of a large ftone. No light is admitted but at the entrance, and through a hole in the thatch, which gives vent to the fmoke. This hole is not directly over the fire, left the rain fhould extinguifh it; and the finoke therefore naturally fills the place before it efcapes. Such is the general ftructure of the houses in which one of the nations of this opulent and powerful ifland has been hitherto content to live. Huts however are not more uniform than palaces; and this which we were inspecting was very far from one of the meaneft, for it was divided into feveral apartments; and its inhabitants poffefsed fuch property as a paftoral poet might exalt into riches.

When we entered, we found an old woman boiling goat's-flesh in a kettle. She spoke little English, but we had interpreters at hand, and fhe was willing enough to display her whole fyftem of economy. She has five children, of which none are yet gone from her. The eldeft, a boy of thirteen, and her husband, who is eighty years old, were at work in the wood. Her two next fons were gone to Inverness to buy meal, by which oatmeal is always meant. Meal the considered

as

as expenfive food, and told us, that in spring when the goats gave milk, the children could live without. it. She is mistress of fixty goats, and I saw many kids in an enclosure at the end of her house. She had also fome poultry. By the lake we faw a potatoe-garden, and a small spot of ground on which stood four shucks, containing each twelve fheaves of barley. She has all this from the labour of their own hands, and for what is neceffary to be bought, her kids and her chickens are fent to market.

With the true paftoral hospitality, fhe afked us to fit down and drink whisky. She is religious, and though the kirk is four miles off, probably eight En-. glish miles, the goes thither every Sunday. We gave

her a fhilling, and the begged fnuff; for fnuff is the luxury of a Highland cottage.

Soon afterwards we came to the General's Hut, sɔ called because it was the temporary abode of Wade, while he fuperintended the works upon the road. It is now a house of entertainment for paffengers, and we found it not ill ftocked with provifions,

FALL OF FIERS,

Towards evening we croffed by a bridge, the river which makes the celebrated Fall of Fiers. The country at the bridge ftrikes the imagination with all the gloom and grandeur of Siberian folitude. The way makes a flexure, and the mountains, covered with trees, rife at once on the left hand and in the front. We defired our guides to fhew us the Fall, and difmounting clambered over very rugged crags, till I began to wish that our curiofity might have