romantic estuary or inland loch, which, in many respects, may vie with the more celebrated of the Helvetian lakes. The latter may be enclosed in a bolder frame-work, but, with one or two trifling exceptions, they are destitute of the fairy isles," which, scattered along their surface, give so peculiar a charm to the Highland lochs, and of which the beautiful Loch-awe and Loch-lomond afford striking examples.

"Behold our lakes!" the Swiss exclaims,
"Like gems encased in gorgeous frames-
Those mirrors, where the snowy Alps
Sleep with the sunset on their scalps...."
"Nay, look at ours," replies the Celt,
"Each girdled with its mountain belt
Of rock, and tower, and forest trees,
And gemmed with island sanctuaries!
Like floating palaces they seem,

The Elysium of a poet's dream:

I grant ye rocks and glacier-snows,

Where sunset leaves a lingering rose;

But every lake without its isle

Is Beauty's cheek without its smile."-MS.

On winding round the head of Loch-long, girdled by a romantic shore, this fine arm of the sea is seen to great advantage, and never fails to command admiration. Its mountains send down into the water a series of inclined arms, or ridges, of singularly irregular and indented outline-each hinder one projecting beyond the extremity of that which is nearer, closing in towards the centre of the vista, as if they all obliquely converged to one point. Their lower portions are covered with copse-wood, or brought into culture; while above, they exhibit a pleasing alternation of grey rock, purple heath, and verdant pasture. One of the mountains at the head of Loch-long, Ben-Arthur, presents a singularly bold and fantastic outline; and, from an imaginary resemblance to that personage when stooping over his last, has obtained the characteristic designation of the "Cobbler"-whose lap-stone may justly be considered the largest of any in the craft. Persons disposed to enterprises of danger and difficulty, may here find ample scope for such indulgence, in scaling the rugged side and giddy precipices, which even a practised chamois-hunter would traverse with cautious deliberation. The finest object on the banks of Loch-long, is Ardgarten, the seat of Campbell of Strachur. The view of Loch-long from the Pass of Glencroe is greatly admired.*

The conflict so ably introduced by the painter, represents one of those scenes of cattle-lifting (in Gaelic parlance a creach or foray) and reprisal which, in former times, were familiar occurrences in these wild passes, and the cause of many sanguinary contests, with this understanding, that "he might take who had the power, and he might keep who could."