l a grand scene, with a larger
infusion of beauty than it possessed of old. The scenery of the valley
separating it from Loch Lochy is very similar to that of the Trossachs;
through it there are two approaches to the loch, and the _Mile-Dubh_, or
the Dark Mile, according to our feeling, is more impressive than any
part of the approach to Loch Katrine. The woods and rocks are very
solemn, and yet very sweet; for though many old pines and oaks and ashes
are there, and the wall of rocks is immense, young trees prevail now on
many places, as well along the heights as among the knolls and hillocks
below, where alders and hawthorns are thick; almost everywhere the young
are intermingled with the old, and look cheerful under their protection,
without danger of being chilled by their shade. The loch, more or less
sylvan from end to end, shows on its nearer shores some magnificent
remains of the ancient forest, and makes a noble sweep like some great
river. There may be more, but we remember but one island--not large, but
wooded as it should be--the burying-place of the family of Lochiel. What
rest! It is a long journey from Loch Lochy to Kinloch Arkaig--and by the
silent waters we walked or sat all a summer's day. There was nothing
like a road that we observed, but the shores are easily travelled, and
there it is you may be almost sure of seeing some red-deer. They are no
better worth looking at from a window than Fallow--no offence to Fallow,
who are fine creatures; indeed, we had rather not see them so at all;
but on the shores or steeps of Loch Arkaig, with hardly a human
habitation within many, many miles, and these few rather known than seen
to be there, the huts of Highlanders contented to cultivate here and
there some spot that seems cultivatable, but probably is found not to
be so after some laborious years--there they are at home; and you, if
young, looking on them, feel at home too, and go bounding, like one of
themselves, over what, did you choose, were an evitable steep. Roe, too,
frequent the copses, but to be seen they must be started; grouse spring
up before you oftener than you might expect in a deer forest; but, to be
sure, it is a rough and shaggy one, though lovelier lines of verdure
never lay in the sunshine than we think we see now lying for miles along
the margin of that loch. The numerous mountains towards the head of the
loch are very lofty, and glens diverge in grand style into opposite and
distant region