of barrennefs can afford very little amufement to the traveller; that it is eafy to fit at home and conceive rocks, and heath, and waterfalls; and that thefe journeys are ufelefs labours, which neither impregnate the imagination, nor enlarge the underftanding. It is true, that of far the greater part of things, we must content ourfelves with fuch knowledge as defcription may exhibit, or analogy fupply; but, it is true likewife, that thefe ideas are always incomplete, and that at least, till we have compared them with realities, we do not know them to be juft. As we fee more, we become poffeffed of more certainties, and confequently gain more principles of reasoning, and found a wider bafis 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, muft live unacquainted with much of the face of nature, and with one of the great feenes of human exiftence.

As the day advanced towards noon, we entered a narrow valley, not very flowery, but fufficiently verdant. Our guides told us, that the horfes could not travel all day without reft or meat, and entreated us to ftop here, becaufe no grafs could be found in any other place. The requeft was reafonable, 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 Ro

mance

mance might have delighted to feign. I had in-deed no trees to whisper over my head, but a clear rivulet ftreamed at my feet. The day was calm, the air foft, and all was rudenefs, 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 firft conceived the thought of this narration.

We were in this place at eafe, and by choice,, and had no evils to fuffer or to fear; yet the imaginations excited by the view of an unknown and untravelled wildernefs are not fuch as arife in the artificial folitude of parks and gardens, a flattering notion of felf-fufficiency, a placid indulgence of voluntary delufions, a fecure expansion 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 rufh. upon the thoughts; man is made unwillingly ac--quainted with his own weakness, and meditation fhews him. only how little he can fuftain, 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 herdsman had rested in the favourable feafons. 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 wander ed among the rocks till he had perished with

fhelter.

hardship, before he could have found either food er Yet what are thefe hillocks to the ridges of Taurus, or thefe fpots of wildness to the defarts. of America?

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

GLENSHEALS.

The lough at last 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. Be-yond 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 ftone, 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 thofe Highlanders who might fhow us any

kindness.

kindness. We were now at a place where we could obtain milk, but muft have wanted bread if we had not brought 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 diftinguifhed by greaterfpacioufnefs and better architecture, brought out fome pails of milk. The villagers gathered about us in confiderable numbers, I believe without any evil intention, but with a very favage wildness of aspect and manner. When our meal was over, Mr Bofwell fliced the bread, and divided it amongst them, as he fuppofed them never to have tafted a wheaten loaf before. He then gave them little pieces of twisted tobacco, and among the children we diftributed a small handful of halfpence, which they received with great eagerness. Yet I have been fince told that the people of that valley are not indigent; and when we mentioned them afterwards as needy and pitiable, a Highland lady let. us know, that we might fpare our commiseration; for the dame whofe milk we drank had probably more than a dozen milk-cows. She feemed unwilling to take any price, but being preffed to make a demand, at last named a fhilling. Honefty is not greater where elegance is lefs. One of the byftanders, as we were told afterwards, advised her to ask more, but she said a fhilling was enough. We gave her half a crown, and I hope got fome credit by our behaviour; for the company faid,.

if our interpreters did not flatter us, that they had not feen fuch a day fince the old laird of Macleod paffed through their country.

The Macraes, as we heard afterwards in the Hebrides, were originally an indigent and fubordinate clan, and having no farms nor ftock, were in great numbers fervants to the Maclellans, who, in the war of Charles the Firit, took arms at the call of the heroic Montrofe, and were, in one of his battles almost all deftroyed. The women that were left at home, being thus deprived of their hufbands, like the Scythian ladies of old, married their fervants, and the Macraes became a confiderable race..

THE HIGHLANDS.

As we continued our journey, we were at leisure to extend our fpeculations, and to inveftigate thereafon of those peculiarities, by which fuch rugged regions as thefe before us are generally diftinguifhed..

Mountainous countries commonly contain the original, at least the oldest race of inhabitants, for they are not eafily conquered, becaufe they must. be entered by narrow ways, expofed to every power of mifchief from those that occupy the heights; and every new ridge is a new fortrefs, where the defendants have again the fame advantages. If the affailants either force the ftrait, or

ftorm