Distribution of the Mountains in the Highland Districts.
Though the best maps, and Mr. Arrowsmith's among others, represent the Highland, or north-west ern mountains, as disposed in ridges, and though chains are familiarly spoken of, that is not the charac ter of the country. It must rather be considered an irregular mass of mountains, a great table land of hills thrown together without any determinate or pre dominant disposition.
The only thing which could give any colour to this imaginary fact, is the disposition of the land on the sides of the great Caledonian valley, the Glenmore na Albin; but even here the boundaries cannot be consid ered as mountain chains or ridges. The ridges, which are represented as attending the course of the Find horn, that of the Spey, and that of the Dee, are almost equally fictitious, though certain small portions in va rious parts of the country may claim this denomina tion.
Such ridges will be found, sometimes attending the course of a river, more frequently the valley of a lake.
Thus Loch Earn may be conceived to lie between two ridges, and the same might be thought of Loch Tay, Loch Tumel, Loch Ericht, and others, though when the ground is itself examined, the exceptions will be found such as to deprive most of the apparent chains of any real claims to this denomination.
It will be seen also, that the apparent ridges do not follow the courses of the rocks themselves, or the bear ings of the stratification. The general tendency of this with no essential exceptions, is on lines which may be conceived to vary from the north-east to the north north-east. But even the apparent ridges do not all follow this course, presenting very various tenden cies.
The courses of the valleys which contain the greater lakes may here be taken as examples, since it is by these that the apparent ridges are best indicated. Thus Loch Long tends to the north north-east, while Loch Lomond in its immediate vicinity is directed consider ably to the westward of north; and the course of Loch Cateran, not far off, is not much to the northward of west. Of the four lakes, Loch Earn, Loch Tay, Loch Rannoch, and Loch Ericht, all lying on the same me ridian nearly, and at inconsiderable distances from each other, the southernmost, Loch Earn, lies nearly east and west. The course of Loch Tay, the next, is north-east, and that of Loch Rannoch is due east. And
here, in particular, the shape of the high land is strongly contrasted to the supposed north-easterly bearing, as this valley may he said to commence in the sea at Loch Leven, stretching across the moor of Rannoch so as to include that lake, and also Loch Tumel, and not terminating till it is cut off by the north and south valley which conducts the Tumel into the Tay. The last of these lakes, Loch Ericht, holds a north north-east course, parallel to the Glenmore na Albin.
This confusion is even more apparent, if we exam ine from Loch Lomond westward. The two branches of Loch Long, one of which forms Loch Goyl, have different tendencies; and Loch Eck is nearly at right angles to Loch Fyne, to which it approximates. The great ridge of Cruachan, which conducts at its foot the exit of the Awe, is at right angles to those which bound Loch Awe, as well as to Loch Etive; and the course of Loch Etive itself is discordant.
If we examine the sea lochs of the west, and the islands, the same uncertainty of position will be appa rent, though, to the southward, the tendency is very regular, and according to the courses of the stratifica tion. Thus the lochs from Loch Tarbet to Loch Craignish hold an accurate north-easterly course; but after that these positions become uncertain and con tradictory. The first division of Loch Etive tends due east, and so does the general course of Loch Sunart. The same may be said of Loch Morrer and Loch Ne vish; while the first branch of Loch Hourn lies to the south-east, as does Loch Duich. Here also the intri cacy of the ridges is very striking, because Loch Long, which branches from this, has a course of somewhat more than a right angle from it. At Loch Torridon, the ridges of hills, and the consequent direction of this very deep inlet, is due east; and after this the posi tions become almost invariably the exact reverse of the course of the strata and of that tendency which is so strongly marked by the Glenmore na Albin. Loch Maree, both the Loch Brooms, Loch Assynt, Loch More, Loch Inchard, and all the accompanying small er fresh water lakes and inlets, tend invariably to the south-east, and such is also the very distinct courses of the ridges, as far as the)- hold any courses.