AUGUST

FROM FORT AUGUSTUS TO DORNOCH.

WHILE Crossing the lake, I began to see a reason why there is, perhaps, less rain in Murrayshire than any where else in Scotland. There is evidently a hollow from Inverness to Fort William, with the high hills of Lovat, &c. on the south side, and the hills of Urquhart on the north; and all along this hollow, which extends the whole breadth of the island, there is a perpetual current of air, as in a Syphon, either from west to east, or directly contrary. If, then, the clouds, impregnated with rain, arise from the west, by the time they approach this current of air they generally begin to acquire such a velocity as carries them past Inverness, and even over the whole of the lower parts of Murray into the German Ocean, before much of the rain, with which they are impregnated, falls; and the same principle operates when the clouds, impregnated with rain, arise from the German Ocean. Hence, probably, the reason why from eight to ten inches less of water falls in the lower parts of Murray than any where else in North Britain. But whether this current of air, always from east to west, or the contrary, will upon some occasions be detrimental or advantageous to the shipping on the Caledonian canal, I leave the projectors to determine.

The roads on the south side of the lake, from Inverness to Fort Augustus, must have been made at

a vast expense, it being, in some places, cut through the rock at the foot of the hills of Lovat, which extends to the very lake; but, on the other side, at the foot of the hills of Urquhart, there seems scarcely any road at all, and the only pleasant sensation I felt arose from a most extensive prospect of lofty and rugged mountains, rising to a prodigious height, and in some places almost perpendicular from a widely extended lake. After a long fatiguing ride through a tract of country but thinly peopled, and in many places miserably cultivated, I

arrived at

CROMARTY,

Where I found a number of genteel people, and many as well and as fashionably dressed as any in the city of London. The bay here is noble, and the harbour so large, that the British navy might ride secure in it. The entrance into the bay is nar row, and there are rocks in the sea on each side at the entrance, which are called the souters of Cromarty, because they guard the entrance into the bay; and, on account of this name, some imagine that the Greeks have been here, and that the name is taken from the Greek word log, Servator, or Sa viour, but it is more likely derived from the word shooters; in other words, rocks shooting out into the sea.

Though the feudal system and clanship is fast declining in Scotland, yet I was sorry to find so many marks of it in this part of the country. Being in

FROM FORT AUGUSTUS TO DORNOCH.

WHILE Crossing the lake, I began to see a reason. why there is, perhaps, less rain in Murrayshire than any where else in Scotland. There is evidently a hollow from Inverness to Fort William, with the high hills of Lovat, &c. on the south side, and the hills of Urquhart on the north; and all along this hollow, which extends the whole breadth of the island, there is a perpetual current of air, as in a Syphon, either from west to east, or directly contrary. If, then, the clouds, impregnated with rain, arise from the west, by the time they approach this current of air they generally begin to acquire such a velocity as carries them past Inverness, and even over the whole of the lower parts of Murray into the German Ocean, before much of the rain, with which they are impregnated, falls; and the same principle operates when the clouds, impregnated with rain, arise from the German Ocean. Hence, probably, the reason why from eight to ten inches less of water falls in the lower parts of Murray than any where else in North Britain. But whether this current of air, always from east to west, or the contrary, will upon some occasions be detrimental or advantageous to the shipping on the Caledonian canal, I leave the projectors to determine.

The roads on the south side of the lake, from Inverness to Fort Augustus, must have been made at