racle was considered as a certain pledge on the part of the Saint, that he was resolved to give them the victory.

A little above the green valley, the road, crossing the river by a bridge over the Etterick, still a considerable stream even at the base of the masses from which it receives the first of its waters, stretches for about two miles along a barren circular field, covered with heath, and almost surrounded by immense mountains. A chapel of ease, attached to the parish of Killin, appears on the left bank of the stream; the unavoidable extent of the parishes, and dispersion of the thin population in these wide wastes, rendering such appendages a matter of absolute necessity for the religious instruction of the people. As one approaches the narrow opening on the north-west, through which the road escapes from this mountain enclosure, the inn of Tyandrum, and the village behind it, are seen in the middle of this vast gateway. A stream from the western face of the mountains, on the east, descends between the inn and the village; and, encountering in the deepest hollow the base of the opposite mass, is turned eastwards through the enclosure already mentioned; where it is joined by another stream from the western mountains, these two streams being the highest

and most remote sources of the Tay, which, with reference to the quantity of water it carries to the sea, is the greatest river in Britain. In the face of the mountain, which forms the end or head of the western semi-circular ridge nearest the village, a deep cut is made from the top to the bottom, exhibiting, in the sides of the chasm and the substance thrown out on its banks, a soil of a gray or bluish white colour. This is the lead mine of Tyandrum, which at this period remained unwrought, not, as the natives stated, from any deficiency in the mine, but from want of capital in the hands of the former tenant or contractor, to enable him to use the proper means for extracting the material.

The ground in this neighbourhood is the highest line or ridge of the inclined plane from west to east, which is the shape of Scotland. The country rises from the German Ocean, by a long and gradual ascent to this height, and then falls by a short and rapid descent to the Atlantic. All the great rivers, except the Clyde, flow to the east; and on the eastern coast are to be found the deepest and best soils, in the best sheltered situations. In the narrow steep western face, exposed to all the violent winds of the Atlantic, the soil is thin, but, owing to the con

stant rains, usually covered with fine verdure, affording excellent pasture for sheep and cattle. The stupendous masses, which shoot up from this lofty height, send down from one side the torrents that rush through the glens of the Urchay and Argyleshire Lochy, towards the west; and, at the base of the vast mountain of Cruachan, about thirteen or fourteen miles from Tyandrum, fall into Loch Awe: from which with the waters of the lake they are discharged by the river Awe, after a course of from twenty to thirty miles in all, into the Western Ocean. From the same mountains, on another side, descend the streams which form the most distant branches of the Tay, commencing, like the Spey, the Forth, and other great rivers, its long eastern journey almost on the shores of the Atlantic, and receiving as it proceeds many tributary supplies from the mountains on its sides. First running eastwards through the valleys of Strathfillan and Glendochart, and receiving the Perthshire Lochy from the north, it falls into the west end of Loch Tay at Killin. Issuing in a still larger volume of water from the east end of that lake, it continues an easterly course through the Ballach, where it is joined by the Lyon from the north, to Logierait at the lower extremity of Strath Tay; and uniting at that

point with the large river Tummel from the north, it turns south to Dunkeld, where it receives the Bran from the south-west. Having thus traversed the long valley, which under dif ferent names extends from Tyandrum to the hills of Birnam and Newtyle below Dunkeld, the swoln flood rolls from its mountain barriers, and flows east and south-east for eight miles through the fertile valley of Strathmore, where it receives the Isla from the north. Turning afterwards, by a sudden bend, west and southwest, and then directly south, it flows for twelve miles, receiving the Almond from the west, through the fine plain of Perth Proper to the town of Perth. Having received the waters of the Earn from the south-west, a little below Perth, it falls into the firth of Tay at low water mark, near the town of Newburgh in Fife, after a course of about ninety miles, first through deep and comparatively narrow passes, among immense mountains, and then through some of the most fertile champaign country in Scotland. Opening at Newburgh into a wide æstuary, and stretching eastwards for about forty miles, having on the south the coast of Fife, and on the north the coasts of Perth and Angus, including the carse of Gowrie and town of Dundee, to a line between Fifeness and the vici

nity of Aberbrothick, it there spreads out into the German Ocean, to which it carries the waters of 2396 square miles.

As the valley through which the river flows rises towards the west, the scale of the adjoining mountains gradually increases in magnitude and height; and although particular masses, such as Ben Lawers, of the greatest bulk and height, are situate about the middle, the mountains on the ridge or highest side of the plane, and those behind it on the west, against which it leans, such as Benichewan and Benlaoighe, are in their general aspect more stupendous and lofty. The same general appearance of immense size and height, in the mountains, is continued during the short and steep descent from the ridge to the western sea-coast; and the vast mountain of Cruachan, with one side a few miles to the west of this elevated line, and another in the Atlantic, is 1130 yards high, and above twenty miles in circumference.

Torrents of smuggled whiskey, increasing as they proceed, descend from both sides of the ridge; the general tendency, like the course of the great rivers, being towards the east and south-east. The illicit, manufacture of this article is almost universal over all the highlands and islands; and whiskey is to the full as much a