dious modern buildings, an old massy tower, wearing an air of bluff defiance to any hostile visiter.

9. Close by Ballindalloch is the little inn of Dalnashaugh, thirteen miles from Grantown. At Aberlour, (seven miles and a half farther on,) a village, consisting of a street and small square of substantially built low houses, we regain the bank of the river, which the road crosses about a mile below at Craigelachie Bridge. It consists of a very handsome iron arch, with a round embattled tower at each corner; and the reach, for four miles below is eminently beautiful. Three miles below the bridge we pass the village of Rothes, which is composed of from 200 to 300 small straw-thatched cottages, arranged in four streets, diverging at unequal angles from a common centre. After taking one or two bold sweeps or curves below Rothes, the strath is prolonged, in a continued straight line, to its termination at Speymouth, 14 miles from Rothes, 4 miles beyond Fochabers, where the hills and terraces, to which they give place, gradually subside into a smooth plain bordering on the sea. (For a description of Elgin and Fochabers, see p. 106-114.)

ROUTE SECOND, BRANCH D.

ROUTES ACROSS THE GRAMPIANS TO BRAEMAR AND ATHOLE, WITH LOCH-AN-EILAN, CAIRNGORM, ETC.

Various Passes, 1.-Glenmore, 2.-Botany; Rock Crystals, 3.-Geological Features; Loch Avon, 4.-Loch-an-Eilan; the Dee, 5.-Cairngorm, 6.Pass of Minikaig; Pass of Gaick; Catastrophe in 1799; Geology of the Grampians, 7.-Rare Plants, 8.

1. THERE are four passes across the Grampians, besides those through which the public roads proceed, which require some notice. The first is from Aviemore, by Glenmore, across the eastern shoulders of the Cairngorms by the south end of Glen Avon to Braemar ; or, secondly, by a more westerly course through the skirts of the Rothiemurchus forest, and up Altdrui Glen on the west side of Cairngorm to the sources of the Dee between that mountain and Braeriach, and thence along the west side of Ben Mhuick Dhui, and the course of the Dee; the third from Loch Inch, or Inverishie, by Minikaig, into Athole; and the fourth proceeds from Glen Tromie, by the Forest of Gaick, into Glen Tilt and Athole.

None of these routes should be attempted by the pedestrian without a guide; and each of them will require, in the passage, the greater part of a long summer's day. The first two can only be undertaken, either from Castletown in Braemar or from Aviemore in Strathspey, at both of which places guides may be hired; and the two last routes, in like manner, must be begun either from Blair Athole, terminating the same day at Kingussie in Badenoch; or this order may be reversed. But it should be distinctly borne in mind, that, when once the low valleys at either end of these journeys are passed, not a single hut or place of shelter is to be found in the hills, and that none but persons in robust health and accustomed to walking should try these excursions. In tempestuous weather they should on no account be attempted by any one. The length of each exceeds thirty miles of hill and dale, which is fully

as toilsome as one-half additional distance on a made road; and as the visiter must start from one end, and sleep next night at the other, without the possibility of finding any place of refreshment, we would advise his carrying provisions with him, and loitering as shortly as possible by the way.

Pursuing the first route, we cross the Spey at Inverdruie, near Aviemore, and proceed eastward, through Glenmore, which, "without being picturesque, is a magnificent scene, from its open basin-like form, rising at once up the high and unbroken mountains which surround it, from its wide extent, and from its simple grandeur of character. Everywhere is seen rising young woods of various ages, promising, when centuries shall have passed away, to restore to the valley its former honours. But it is the wreck of the ancient forest which arrests all the attention, and which renders Glenmore a melancholy-more than a melancholy-a terrific spectacle. Trees of enormous height, which have escaped alike the axe and the tempest, are still standing, stripped by the winds even of their bark, and, like gigantic skeletons, throwing far and wide their white and bleached bones to the storms and rains of heaven; while others, broken by the violence of the gales, lift their split and fractured trunks in a thousand shapes of resistance and of destruction, or still display some knotted and tortuous branches, stretched out in sturdy and fantastic forms of defiance to the whirlwind and the winter. It is the naked skeleton bleaching in the winds, the gigantic bones of the forest still erect, the speaking records of former life, and of strength still unsubdued, vigorous even in death, which renders Glenmore one enormous charnel-house." The wood in this valley was sold to the York Buildings Company for £10,000; and it is said their profits exceeded £70,000.

3. Passing the region of the forests, the stranger finds himself about a third of the way up the Grampian slopes, which are thence only sparingly covered with heather, and whortle and cranberries; and as he approaches the summit, even these disappear, and the naked undecomposed granite presents itself, the crevices of which are but occa

sionally tinged with the varied colours of small alpine lichens and mosses, more prevalent than which, however, the botanist will descry the little phænogamous beauties of Statice Armeria and Silene acaulis.

The ascent from the west end of Glenmore to the top of Cairngorm is easy, with little variety from protruding rocks, or watercourses. "One smooth and undulating surface of granite mountain, without the variety of bold precipice or deep ravine, follows another, so far and so wide, that, when other objects appear, they are beyond the reach and powers of the eye, and produce no effect."

To the botanist this mountain is almost a blank, as regards phænogamous plants; and, indeed, the productions on it and the neighbouring chain of mountains present a greater resemblance to the Flora of the Lapland Alps, than those of any other elevations in Britain. Lichen nivalis is, doubtless, the most striking plant on Cairngorm, but it has not been met with in fructification; while some other species of the same genus (Cetraria) found nowhere else in fruit, often present themselves here in that state. Lycopodium annotinum and Azalea procumbens are exceedingly abundant, and Luzula armata, associated with L. spicata, are almost the only phænogamous plants to be met with on the bare summit.*

The surface of this mountain is also, in some places, sprinkled over with those crystals which have obtained the name of Cairngorms, and which are generally washed down by the streams from cavities in the rocks. They likewise occur in many other mountains, the pure white and pinkish colours being the most common: the latter variety passes under the name of amethyst. The dark brown or black kind is also abundant, but it is seldom free from rents, and is not in favour. It has been questioned, whether one fiftieth part of these stones, sold to feed our national vanity, are productions of the country. Scotch topaz, and beryl, are likewise found here; but more plentifully in the alluvia of the Dee and Don, on the south side of the Grampians.

* Arabis petræa is also met with on this mountain, and at its base is exceedingly luxuriant, having, no doubt, been transported thither by the agency of water. The very rare plant, Polytrichum Septentrionale, is likewise found here.

4. The central nucleus of these mountains, as is well known, is composed of granite, intermixed with and resting on which are a series of slaty and stratified rocks, (abounding with beds of primitive limestone,) the junctions and relations of which, however, are not so well known or so extensively displayed in the sections on the north side of the Grampians as in the opposite quarter of the country.

From the top or shoulder of Cairngorm the descent is easy to Loch Avon, or A'an, a scene almost unrivalled even in Switzerland, yet one which nature seems nearly to have buried beyond human resort; as, though accessible also from Braemar, the distance from any habitation is on that side likewise so great, that it is scarcely possible to visit it and return within the compass of the longest summer day. In Braemar a mountain exists which is called the Eastern or Lesser Cairngorm ; and the tourist will have to take care that he be not conducted to it, instead of to the true and higher mountain, which is situated in Inverness-shire.

Having conducted the traveller as far as Loch Avon, we will postpone the description of the route between it and Braemar to the succeeding branch, merely noticing that it lies up Glen-dhu-lochan, on the east side of Ben-na-main, and across into Glen Dearg, and the continuation of it, Glen Lui, to the Linn of Dee.

5. Proceeding now from the ferry at Rothiemurchus, through the Rothiemurchus woods in a south-easterly direction, we ascend the Alt Drui Glen: but on the way we must not omit to visit Loch-an-Eilan.

Loch-an-Eilan is only about two miles distant from the Spey; and the road to it winds round the beautiful birchclad hill, the Ord Bain, which rises from its western shore; but the lake, its castle, and its woods, recall to the imagination rather the things we read of in the novels of the Otranto school than a scene of real life. "In some parts of it, the rocky precipices rise immediately from the deep water, crowned with the dark woods that fling a profound shadow over it; in others, the solid masses of the trees advance to its edge; while elsewhere open green shores, or low rocky points, or gravelly beaches, are seen: the scat