the panorama of mountain, lake, and distant
far-stretching forest-land that lay beneath our feet as we conversed,
they did not conceal their consciousness that the prospect of passing
some months on such a spot was not particularly cheering to
round-cheeked comfortable Englishmen, accustomed at Sandhurst and
Addiscombe to comforts even superior to those of the Saut Market. The
air was unexceptionably pure and abundant--yet the Bedford level might
have been preferable as a permanent residence. Many were the reflections
that occurred to us of the feelings of a set of men thus cut off from
the earth, down on which they looked, like so many Jacks on a huge
bean-stalk. What a place to encounter the first burst of the November
storm in, beneath the frail covering of a tent! How did their friends
address letters to them? Would a cover addressed "Mr Abel Thompson of
the Royal engineers, Top of Ben Nevis," be a document to which the
post-office would pay any more regard than to a letter addressed to one
of the fixed stars? Could they ask a friend to step up to dinner, or
exchange courtesies with the garrison of Fort William, into whose
windows they might peep with their telescopes?

In the course of conversation with our new friends, we alighted on a
subject in which we have long taken an interest. They had already
conducted some operations on Ben Muich Dhui, and they were now
commencing such surveys on Ben Nevis, as would enable them finally to
decide which of these mountains has the honour of being the highest land
in the United Kingdom. Competition has of late run very close between
them; and the last accounts had shown Ben Muich Dhui only some twenty
feet or so a-head. We freely confess that we back Ben Muich Dhui in this
contest. It is true that Ben Nevis is in all respects a highly
meritorious hill. We must do justice to his manly civility and good
humour. We have found many a crabbed little crag more difficult of
access; and, for his height, we scarcely know another mountain, of which
it is so easy to reach the top. He stands majestic and alone, his own
spurs more nearly rivalling him than any of the neighbouring hills.
Rising straight from the sea, his whole height and magnificent
proportions are before us at once, and the view from the summit has an
unrivalled expanse. Still there are stronger charms about the great
centre of the Cairngorm range. Surrounded by his peers, he stands apart
from the every-day world in myste