racter of all
those lifeless cliffs. Silence and darkness suit well together in
solitude at noonday, and settled on huge objects make them sublime. And
they were huge; all ranged together, and stretching away to a great
distance, with the pitchy water, still as if frozen, covering their
feet.

Loch Ericht is many miles long--nearly twenty; but there is a loch among
the Grampians not more than two miles round, if so much, which is
sublimer far--Loch Aven. You come upon the sight of it at once, a short
way down from the summit of Cairngorm, and then it is some two thousand
feet below you, itself being as many above the level of the sea. But to
come upon it so as to feel best its transcendent grandeur, you should
approach it up Glenaven--and from as far down as Inch-Rouran, which is
about half-way between Loch Aven and Tomantoul. Between Inch-Rouran and
Tomantoul the glen is wild, but it is inhabited; above that house there
is but one other; and for about a dozen miles--we have heard it called
far more--there is utter solitude. But never was there a solitude at
once so wild, so solemn, so serene, so sweet! The glen is narrow; but on
one side there are openings into several wider glens, that show you
mighty coves as you pass on; on the other side the mountains are without
a break, and the only variation with them is from smooth to shaggy, from
dark to bright; but their prevailing character is that of pastoral or of
forest peace. The mountains that show the coves belong to the bases of
Ben-Aven and Ben-y-buird. The heads of those giants are not seen--but it
sublimes the long glen to know that it belongs to their dominion, and
that it is leading us on to an elevation that ere long will be on a
level with the roots of their topmost cliffs. The Aven is so clear--on
account of the nature of its channel--that you see the fishes hanging in
every pool; and 'tis not possible to imagine how beautiful in such
transparencies are the reflections of its green ferny banks. For miles
they are composed of knolls, seldom interspersed with rocks, and there
cease to be any trees. But ever and anon we walk for a while on a level
floor, and the voice of the stream is mute. Hitherto sheep have been
noticed on the hill, but not many, and red and black cattle grazing on
the lower pastures; but they disappear, and we find ourselves all at
once in a desert. So it is felt to be, coming so suddenly with its black
heather on that greenest grass; but 'ti