The Ossian, where so much information might have been procured. At the bay of Elan Dermid, or Elan Oronsay, where there is a straggling village, we passed by the mouth of a cave which is supposed to be very extensive. track of country over which we passed is so irregular and stony that it is necessary to use the spade instead of the plough in cultivation. The spade used is of a particular construction, and though it scratches lightly, turns over the surface of a great quantity of ground. The view of the distant hills of Sky-blue, steep, and rugged—is extremely picturesque, particularly the highest, termed Cuillean. From Elan Dermid we proceeded in a boat to Glenelg, where we arrived in the dusk, and find we have fallen plumb, like a covey of grouse, into the middle of a party of sportsmen, which consists of clergymen, seamen, and our hospitable landlord; and I have in the meantime seized some trifling pretext for leave of absence in order to escape from the surprising anecdotes, related with so much glee, of the sagacity of pointers -their passing along majestic as lions, their dead points, and many other circumstances too important to be thrown away on a person who is so little of a connoisseur as your humble servant. To J. R. FORT WILLIAM, August 30, 1800. DEAR SIR, Like the wandering knights in romance romance - who generally found a hospitable mansion situated in the most opportune position in the evening, though they were forced to wander all day long through the most dreary solitudes and frightful deserts— we have discovered a beautiful village by the side of a lake, which, after wandering so long in the wildest parts of the Highlands, we are very much disposed to call a town; and it is from this town that I have the honour of addressing you. And now that I have mentioned the castles of romance, you are not to suppose that it is deficient in point of a castle, though, as this is of no great altitude, I am rather disposed with the moderns to term it a fort. When we reached this townfort, if you please-we had suffered nearly as much as the most disastrous knights-errant, not from the attacks of giants, dwarfs, or necromancers, but from the assault of a much more formidable adversary, ycleped famine. We have, however, contrived to demolish the enemy entirely, and left no vestige of him remaining but the bare bones. I shall therefore, without fear of molestation, proceed to narrate to you our adventures, from the time of our leaving Glenelg to our arrival at Fort William, in a country Where belly timber above ground Or under was not to be found. After having seen the glen and the singular round turrets, which are more perfect in this valley than in almost any other quarter of the Highlands, we resisted even the temptation of a red-deer hunt, and, having procured a boat, sailed along the shore of Knoydart till we entered Loch Nevis. The vale of Glenelg displays a wild and romantic scene above Islandrioch. It is skirted on both sides by white craggy ridges, which at the head of the glen are crossed and terminated by a similar range of rocks. The river which flows through the vale is bordered by green meadows and yellow corn-fields. Beyond these the declivity is lightly sprinkled with shrubs and trees. The hill blackens as it ascends, till the heath mingles with the white rocks. Downward, the sound of Sky appears dark, wild, and picturesque, in which a number of vessels were riding, crossing and recrossing each other; while beyond them towered in naked magnificence the blue mountains of Sky. But the objects most worthy the attention of a philosophical antiquary are the round turrets, built without lime or mortar. We visited and examined the remains of two of these edifices, and saw the site of a third, which we were informed had been demolished and the materials employed in building the barracks at Bernera. The round towers of Carron shared a similar fate. Both the towers which we visited are about the same dimensions with that of Lismore which we examined, being about 180 feet in circumference. In Lismore the wall |
