mirror, the trees which hang over them, an
inverted landscape." The islands are for ever arranging themselves into
new forms, every one more and more beautiful; at least so they seem to
be, perpetually occurring, yet always unexpected, and there is a
pleasure even in such a series of slight surprises that enhances the
delight of admiration. And alongside, or behind us, all the while, are
the sylvan mountains, "laden with beauty;" and ever and anon open glens
widen down upon us from chasms; or forest-glades lead our hearts away
into the inner gloom--perhaps our feet; and there, in a field that looks
not as if it had been cleared by his own hands, but left clear by
nature, a woodsman's hut.

Half-way between Luss and Tarbet the water narrows, but it is still
wide; the new road, we believe, winds round the point of Firkin, the old
road boldly scaled the height, as all old roads loved to do; ascend it,
and bid the many-isled vision, in all its greatest glory, farewell.
Thence upwards prevails the spirit of the mountains. The lake is felt to
belong to them--to be subjected to their will--and that is capricious;
for sometimes they suddenly blacken it when at its brightest, and
sometimes when its gloom is like that of the grave, as if at their
biding, all is light. We cannot help attributing the "skyey influences"
which occasion such wonderful effects on the water, to prodigious
mountains; for we cannot look on them without feeling that they reign
over the solitude they compose; the lights and shadows flung by the sun
and the clouds imagination assuredly regards as put forth by the vast
objects which they colour; and we are inclined to think some such belief
is essential in the profound awe, often amounting to dread, with which
we are inspired by the presences of mere material forms. But be this as
it may, the upper portion of Loch Lomond is felt by all to be most
sublime. Near the head, all the manifold impressions of the beautiful
which for hours our mind had been receiving, begin to fade; if some
gloomy change has taken place in the air, there is a total obliteration,
and the mighty scene before us is felt to possess not the hour merely,
but the day. Yet should sunshine come, and abide a while, beauty will
glimpse upon us even here, for green pastures will smile vividly high up
among the rocks; the sylvan spirit is serene the moment it is touched
with light, and here there is not only many a fair tree by the
water-side, but