through the village of Tyandrum, which is on the west of the bridge in Argyleshire, while the inn is in Perthshire; and then proceeds, by a steep and rapid descent, through the Argyleshire Glenlochy, one of the subdivisions of Glenurchay. In the upper part of Glenlochy, the stupendous mountains, among which Benichewan and Benlaoighe are remarkable, shoot up in a tapering conical shape to a vast height, and are covered all over from their broad bases, almost touching each other below, to the highest points, with narrow belts or rings of short grass edged by the bare rock; the green hue, notwithstanding the wildness of situation, conveying a gay pleasing impression, when compared with the gloom of the dark heath, which finds no depth of soil sufficient for its support among these hard and nearly perpendicular masses. The glen opens towards the lower end, and displays meadows of rich natural grass and cornfields, with farm steadings in the ancient stile. The torrents from the mountains, at the head of the vale, form there a little lake, which gives name to the glen; and the stream of the Lochy, issuing from this lake, after a course of ten miles, during which it swells into a considerable river, joins the main stream of Urchay, about two miles above Dalmally, once the residence of

the chiefs of the Macgregors, from which they were driven by the knight of Lochawe, whose descendants still retain this fine situation; where there is an excellent inn, as is usually the case on all the roads which are carried along the extensive property of the Lord of the Ballach.

The other road turning to the right, a little above the village of Tyandrum, consisting of only a very few low straw or heath-thatched cottages for labourers at the lead mine, including one for the smith, who is a convenient and almost an indispensable tradesman in the neighbourhood of a well frequented inn, stretches for about half a furlong along the ridge; and then suddenly descends, in the face of a long and steep declivity, into the hollow of another branch of Glenurchay, where there is a fine broad green plain, or meadow, with a substantial sheep farm-house in the middle. Into this plain, two torrents pour down from the west side of the mountains on the ridge, one from the height of Tyandrum, another from a glen a little further to the north-west, called Glencouglass; and, uniting below, form together a considerable river for about two miles north-west, through a rich green and wide valley, to the principal branch of the river Urchay. The banks of the stream on the left of the road (the

west) is beautifully fringed along almost the whole of its course with natural wood, chiefly alder; and on the right (the east), the mountains which support, and partly rise above the highest part of the ridge, are of the very first order, wild and lofty, with circular belts of short grass between lines of projecting bare rock, like those of Glenlochy, but in size still more massy and stupendous. The first that occurs after passing the torrent of Glencouglas is the vast conical mass of Ben-our, whose tapering shape and pointed top attracts the attention of the traveller immediatately after leaving Tyandrum, before he reaches the descent into the plain, where the whole side of the mountain is seen in the vastness of its bulk and height. Adjoining to it, is the still more enormous mass of Bendouran, rising more equal and uniform, and terminating in a broad and airy summit; and next to that, but with a deep narrow corry between, is Bendoe, of similar size and shape. Bendouran is celebrated in Gaelic song, being the subject of a good descriptive poem, by Duncan M'Intyre, better known by the name of Duncan Bane, a distinguished bard, who about forty years ago was a common soldier in the old town guard of Edinburgh. He had fought on the side of government at the battle of Falkirk, in

1745; and from a song of his respecting that engagement, it appears that he was far from being sorry that the victory was not on his side.

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Arrived at that part of the road which skirts the base of Bendouran, we have a view of the course of the main stream of the Urchay, for a considerable portion of its extent. Issuing from a lake which appears under the northern face of Bendoe, called Lochtally, or by some such name, it directs its course to the south-west; and, having received the stream from Glencouglas and the heights to the north-west of Tyandrum, it continues its south-westerly course for ten or twelves miles through a beautiful glen, the chief valley of Glenurchay, thickly fringed with natural wood, and covered below with the richest green pasture, overhung on each side by long ridges of vast mountains, some green and rocky, others covered with heath. Issuing from this narrow glen, it receives the waters of the Lochy already mentioned, and flows through the fine and open plain of Dalmally into Loch Awe, from which it is carried along the base of Cruachan by the river Awe, in a north-westerly direction into the arm of the sea called Lochetie.

At the foot of Bendouran, the road descends into the depth of the glen, and, crossing the

river stretches along the western side, through a wood of natural pines, most of them almost rotten with age, to the west point of the lake, which seems to be about a mile and a half long, and rather less than a quarter of a mile broad. The north-westerly direction of the immense mountains, on the east of the road from Tyandrum, terminates with Bendoe at this lake, and the lofty range turning towards the east becomes the southern boundary wall of the wide and moorish plain, which opens towards the north and east. The traveller, after passing the end of the lake, and advancing near the summit of a ridge, of no great height, formed by a gradual declination of the bases of the mountains, on the west towards the level of the moor, has a full view of the southern part of this extended flat, which is called the moor of Rannoch, and is said to be twenty miles square. From the south-western portion of this moor, and from the bounding mountains and narrow glens on the south and west, torrents are seen rushing towards the hollow of the lake, and uniting to form the stream of the Urchay; while far in the east is seen Loch Lyddoch, with its fringing groves of natural wood, which discharges its waters eastwards into Loch Rannoch, and is one of the sources of the Tummel and the Tay.