lation of innumerable ftreams that fall in rainy weather from the hills, and bursting away with refistless impetuofity, make themselves a paffage proportionate to their mass.

Such capricious and temporary waters cannot be expected to produce many fish. The rapidity of the wintry deluge sweeps them away, and the fcantinefs of the fummer ftream would hardly fuftain them above the ground. This is the reafon why in fording the northern rivers, no fishes are feen, as in England, wandering in the water.

Of the hills many may be called with Homer's Ida abundant in fprings, but few can deserve the epithet which he beftows upon Pelion by waving their leaves. They exhibit very little variety; being almost wholly covered with dark heath, and even that seems to be checked in its growth. What is not heath is nakedness, a little diverfified by now and then a stream rushing down the steep. An eye accustomed to flowery paftures and waving harvests is astonished and repelled by this wide extent of hopeless fterility. The appearance is that of matter incapable of form or usefulness, dismissed by nature from her care and difinherited of her favours, left in its original elemental state, or quickened only with one fullen power of uselessvegetation.

It

It will very readily occur, that this uniformity of barrenness can afford very little amusement to the traveller; that it is eafy to fit at home and conceive rocks and heath, and water-falls; and that these journies are useless labours, which neither impregnate the imagination, nor enlarge the understanding. It is true that of far the greater part of things, we must content ourselves with fuch knowledge as defcription may exhibit, or analogy fupply; but it is true likewife, that thefe ideas are always incomplete, and that at leaft, till we have compared them with realities, we do not know them to be juft. As we see more, we become poffeffed of more certainties, and confequently gain more principles of reasoning, and found a wider basis of analogy.

Regions mountainous and wild, thinly inhabited, and little cultivated, make a great part of the earth, and he that has never seen them, must live unacquainted with much of the face of nature, and with one of the great fcenes of human existence.

As the day advanced towards noon, we entered a narrow valley not very flowery, but fufficiently verdant. Our guides told us, that the horses could not travel all day without reft or meat, and intreated us to ftop here, because no grafs would be found

in

in any other place. The request was reasonable, and the argument cogent. We therefore willingly difmounted and diverted ourselves as the place gave us opportunity.

I fat down on a bank, fuch as a writer of Romance might have delighted to feign. I had indeed no trees to whisper over my head, but a clear rivulet streamed at my feet. The day was calm, the air foft, and all was rudeness, filence, and folitude. Before me, and on either fide, were high hills, which by hindering the eye from ranging, forced the mind to find entertainment for itself. Whether I spent the hour well I know not; for here I first conceived the thought of this narration.

We were in this place at ease and by choice, and had no evils to fuffer or to fear; yet the imaginations excited by the view of an unknown and untravelled wilderness are not fuch as arise in the artificial folitude of parks and gardens, a flattering notion of self-sufficiency, a placid indulgence of voluntary delusions, a secure expanfion of the fancy, or a cool concentration of the mental powers. The phantoms which haunt a defert are want, and mifery, and danger; the evils of dereliction rush upon the thoughts; man is made unwillingly acquainted with his own weak

nefs,

nefs, and meditation fhews him only how little he can sustain, and how little he can perform. There were no traces of inhabitants, except perhaps a rude pile of clods called a fummer hut, in which a herdfman had refted in the favourable seasons. Whoever had been in the place where I then fat, unprovided with provisions and ignorant of the country, might, at least before the roads were made, have wandered among the rocks, till he had perished with hardship, before he could have found either food or fhelter. Yet what are these hillocks to the ridges of 'Taurus, or these spots of wildness to the defarts of America?

It was not long before we were invited to mount, and continued our journey by the fide of a lough, kept full by many ftreams, which with more or lefs rapidity and noife, croffed the road from the hills on the other hand. These currents, in their diminished ftate, after feveral dry months afford, to one who has always lived in level countries, an unusual and delightful spectacle; but in the rainy season, such as every winter may be expected to bring, must precipitate an impetuous and tremendous flood. I fuppose the way by which we went, is at that time impaffable.

GLEN

GLENS HEALS.

The lough at laft ended in a river broad and fhallow like the reft, but that it may be paffed when it is deeper, there is a bridge over it. Beyond it is a valley called Glenfheals, inhabited by the clan of Macrae. Here we found a village called Auknafheals, confifting of many huts, perhaps twenty, built all of dry-stone, that is, ftones piled up without mortar.

We had, by the direction of the officers at Fort Auguftus, taken bread for ourselves, and tobacco for those Highlanders who might fhew us any kindness. We were now at a place where we could obtain milk, but must have wanted bread if we had not bought it. The people of this valley did not appear to know any English, and our guides now became doubly neceffary as interpreters. A woman, whofe hut was diftinguished by greater fpacioufnefs and better architecture, brought out some pails of milk. The villagers gathered about us in confiderable numbers, I believe without any evil intention, but with a very favage wildness of afpect and manner. When our meal was over, Mr. Boswell fliced the bread, and divided it amongst them, as he supposed them never to have tafted a wheaten loaf before. He then gave them little pieces of twisted tobacco,

and