At Inverness Therefore We Procured Three Horses For Ourselves And A
Servant, And One More For Our Baggage, Which Was No Very Heavy
Load.
We found in the course of our journey the convenience of
having disencumbered ourselves, by laying aside whatever we
Could
spare; for it is not to be imagined without experience, how in
climbing crags, and treading bogs, and winding through narrow and
obstructed passages, a little bulk will hinder, and a little weight
will burthen; or how often a man that has pleased himself at home
with his own resolution, will, in the hour of darkness and fatigue,
be content to leave behind him every thing but himself.
LOUGH NESS
We took two Highlanders to run beside us, partly to shew us the
way, and partly to take back from the sea-side the horses, of which
they were the owners. One of them was a man of great liveliness
and activity, of whom his companion said, that he would tire any
horse in Inverness. Both of them were civil and ready-handed.
Civility seems part of the national character of Highlanders.
Every chieftain is a monarch, and politeness, the natural product
of royal government, is diffused from the laird through the whole
clan. But they are not commonly dexterous: their narrowness of
life confines them to a few operations, and they are accustomed to
endure little wants more than to remove them.
We mounted our steeds on the thirtieth of August, and directed our
guides to conduct us to Fort Augustus. It is built at the head of
Lough Ness, of which Inverness stands at the outlet. The way
between them has been cut by the soldiers, and the greater part of
it runs along a rock, levelled with great labour and exactness,
near the water-side.
Most of this day's journey was very pleasant. The day, though
bright, was not hot; and the appearance of the country, if I had
not seen the Peak, would have been wholly new. We went upon a
surface so hard and level, that we had little care to hold the
bridle, and were therefore at full leisure for contemplation. On
the left were high and steep rocks shaded with birch, the hardy
native of the North, and covered with fern or heath. On the right
the limpid waters of Lough Ness were beating their bank, and waving
their surface by a gentle agitation. Beyond them were rocks
sometimes covered with verdure, and sometimes towering in horrid
nakedness. Now and then we espied a little cornfield, which served
to impress more strongly the general barrenness.
Lough Ness is about twenty-four miles long, and from one mile to
two miles broad. It is remarkable that Boethius, in his
description of Scotland, gives it twelve miles of breadth. When
historians or geographers exhibit false accounts of places far
distant, they may be forgiven, because they can tell but what they
are told; and that their accounts exceed the truth may be justly
supposed, because most men exaggerate to others, if not to
themselves: but Boethius lived at no great distance; if he never
saw the lake, he must have been very incurious, and if he had seen
it, his veracity yielded to very slight temptations.
Lough Ness, though not twelve miles broad, is a very remarkable
diffusion of water without islands. It fills a large hollow
between two ridges of high rocks, being supplied partly by the
torrents which fall into it on either side, and partly, as is
supposed, by springs at the bottom. Its water is remarkably clear
and pleasant, and is imagined by the natives to be medicinal. We
were told, that it is in some places a hundred and forty fathoms
deep, a profundity scarcely credible, and which probably those that
relate it have never sounded. Its fish are salmon, trout, and
pike.
It was said at fort Augustus, that Lough Ness is open in the
hardest winters, though a lake not far from it is covered with ice.
In discussing these exceptions from the course of nature, the first
question is, whether the fact be justly stated. That which is
strange is delightful, and a pleasing error is not willingly
detected. Accuracy of narration is not very common, and there are
few so rigidly philosophical, as not to represent as perpetual,
what is only frequent, or as constant, what is really casual. If
it be true that Lough Ness never freezes, it is either sheltered by
its high banks from the cold blasts, and exposed only to those
winds which have more power to agitate than congeal; or it is kept
in perpetual motion by the rush of streams from the rocks that
inclose it. Its profundity though it should be such as is
represented can have little part in this exemption; for though deep
wells are not frozen, because their water is secluded from the
external air, yet where a wide surface is exposed to the full
influence of a freezing atmosphere, I know not why the depth should
keep it open. Natural philosophy is now one of the favourite
studies of the Scottish nation, and Lough Ness well deserves to be
diligently examined.
The road on which we travelled, and which was itself a source of
entertainment, is made along the rock, in the direction of the
lough, sometimes by breaking off protuberances, and sometimes by
cutting the great mass of stone to a considerable depth. The
fragments are piled in a loose wall on either side, with apertures
left at very short spaces, to give a passage to the wintry
currents. Part of it is bordered with low trees, from which our
guides gathered nuts, and would have had the appearance of an
English lane, except that an English lane is almost always dirty.
It has been made with great labour, but has this advantage, that it
cannot, without equal labour, be broken up.
Within our sight there were goats feeding or playing.
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