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diate vicinity, except vast cairns of loose stones, or masses of bare rock, being the summits of the loftiest hills; and, in the distance, the valleys, lakes, and rivers, are for the most part entirely hid, and none of them are exhibited but partially and indistinctly. The summits and higher por tions of hills and mountains form the general character of the scene, so that the views from many inferior elevations are, upon the whole, much more picturesque and attractive.

On the present occasion, the top of the mountain was involved in a thick misty cloud, as it usually is from the generally moist state of the weather in the western highlands; but the writer had ascended at a previous period, when the weather was decidedly dry and clear, and the view steadily open. On the north-east face of the highest mass, there is a tremendous perpendicular precipice, said to be 1500 feet in height; and on the south-west side, at the upper end of Glen-Nevis, may be seen several remarkable water-falls, which, uniting in the hollow, form the head of the Nevis river. One of these attracted peculiar attention. The face of the mountain in that quarter, for about half a mile from the depth of the valley upwards, is almost perpendicular, with a broad and nearly level space above, into which the waters are collected

from a considerable portion of this immense mass, and then dashed, a large torrent, down the steep and rugged channel to the bottom of the valley. The furiously rapid and evanescent motion of the stream, eternally struggling and bounding among the broken rocks, and seen over such a long tract, the constantly dazzling flashes of the raging uneven surface of steaming foam, and incessant roar of so many mountain torrents, render this in some respects a more picturesque object than the heavy thundering dash of the single unbroken massy flood of the celebrated fall of Foyers. In the vicinity of this torrent, there is a remarkable cave, in which several persons were concealed after the defeat at Culloden, in 1746, and a vein of lead is said to have been discovered in the glen. The water of Nevis, in a course of eight miles, swells into a large river, which, as already mentioned, enters Loch Linne at Inverlochy.

The herring shoals come up to the innermost extremity of Loch Linne, and the boat herring fishery constitutes a principal part of the occupation of a considerable portion of the popula tion of Inverlochy. In an essay sent to the Highland Society of Edinburgh, Mr. Headrick combats the prevalent notion that the herrings migrate to the Frozen Sea in winter, and return

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to the warmer latitudes in summer. posed migration is directly the reverse of that which takes place in all other known animal migrations; and that circumstance, and other facts, render it highly probable that the herring migration, bearing some analogy to that of salmon, is from the salt water of the deep sea to the less salt or brackish, and shallower water of bays, friths, sea lakes, and arms of the sea, for the purpose of depositing their spawn-the higher temperature of the shallow water in summer being a powerful attraction. It is remarkable, likewise, that a distinct character of herrings is found in the several lakes, bays, and friths, as a distinct character of salmon frequents each different river.

The conclusion has therefore been adopted, that herrings may probably be found at all times in the deep sea, in the vicinity of the places which they regularly frequent in summer; and the bounty has been confined to the larger vessels equipped for the deep sea fishing. The boat fishers are allowed the drawback of the salt duties, but under so many complicated precautions to guard against smuggling, that smugglers reap all the benefit; while to the bona-fide herring curer, the delay and trouble counterbalance the advantage so far as totally to discourage the application for it. To remedy

the inconvenience, a plan of this description has been proposed-that government warehouses of salt, well stored with that article, should be kept at all the fishing stations; that no salt should be delivered to those who apply for it, but upon paying down the whole price, duty included; that at the end of the fishing the salt unused should be allowed to be returned, and the same price repaid that had originally been paid for it; that a deduction of the salt duty should be allowed on every barrel of cured herrings produced; and that all the barrels on which a deduction was claimed should be produced at the same time, to prevent the fraud of taking out the stave of a barrel which had been branded with the inspector's mark, replacing it with a new one, and presenting it again as a different barrel. It would be an improvement that the whole bounty should be on the barrels, and none on the tonnage, that the encouragement might be given with certainty to the execution, and not to the mere show of engaging in the business. The smuggling of salt would thus be prevented; a host of excise officers might be dispensed with, and considerable facility afforded to the fishers who had sufficient capital. But multitudes of boat fishers and curers would be excluded by this plan, or only employed as

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mere fishers, by the capitalists; and it may be doubted whether it is not a decisive objection to any scheme, that it so far interferes with the freedom of fishing.

CALEDONIAN CANAL.

The valley of the great glen, by the obvious facilities which it presented for the formation of an inland canal, was so far pointed out by nature for an undertaking of that description. But a canal, however useful in a fertile populous and manufacturing district, could offer no advantages to the proprietors and occupiers of wild mountains and wide wastes, surrounding the few rich vales of this vicinity, sufficient to compensate the expense of its construction ; and the benefits which might result from it to mercantile and manufacturing interests in distant situations appeared too problematical to attract the capital of individual speculators. Under these circumstances, the project was, from various quarters and from different motives, loudly recommended to the attention of government, with extravagantly exaggerated representations of the advantages with which it would

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