General Distribution of the Southern Mountain Land.
The sketch already given of the middle district will suffice for the account of its distribution. That of the southern division is so irregular as scarcely to ad mit of any arrangement; and though represented as consisting of mountain ridges and chains, it must also be considered, as far as it is hilly, as forming an ir regular assemblage of hills, or an elevated table land, with intervening valleys.
The predominant tendency, however, of these val leys, and consequently of the ridges, if they may so be called, is to the south-eastward; and as there are few lakes, they are traced by the courses of the rivers. If we commence with the Tweed, its predominant course is eastward; hut at Coldstream it turns to the north-east, though there is no peculiar elevation of the land to mark out this course. The courses of the Esk, the Annan, the Nith, the Urr, the Fleet, the Dee, and others, is to the south and the south-east; and their prolonged valleys here mark distinctly the general courses of the hills, less easily traced by any other marks in a country where there arc few eleva tions decidedly overtopping the general mountain land. But as far as it is possible to carry on general lines of elevation, such as they actually are found on the ground, and not in false maps, it will be seen that these are extremely intricate, and bear no general tendency of any kind. In this district of Scotland also, the fundamental cause of ridges is either want ing. or not to be traced, as the stratification of the rocks is irregular or unassignable.
Hence, also, there is nothing in the outline of the coast to require particular notice. It is not only ir regular, but there is nothing in the general stratifica tion which could have influenced its tendency.
Mountains.
The elevations of the Highlands are deserving of this title, according to the vague criterion by which these are generally distinguished; while those of the southern district, with few exceptions, cannot be reck oned beyond the class of hills.
The loftiest continuous range of land in the High lands, and consequently in Britain, is that which bounds the Dee to the northward and eastward, near its sources, which, in fact, form the springs and feed ers of this river. In this prolonged mass or ridge, the
great elevations are Ben muc dhu, Ben avon, Ben y board, Ben chowin, and Cairn gorm. The general altitude of these averages to about 4000 feet, but Ben muc dhu is the loftiest point, and is indeed the high est land in the island.* Among contending altitudes, after this, we need not attempt to take any particular order; hut Lochan na gar, to the south of the Dee in the same vicinity, is a rival mountain.
Proceeding from the same point, the great ridge of Ben y gloe ranks among the loftiest; and its highest summit, Cairn Gower, is one of the chief of the High land mountains. Thus we are conducted to Ben Aul der and Ben Vualach, including Loch Ericht, and a neglected portion of that which unquestionably forms the most elevated track of the whole country. If these have not yet been measured, their comparative alti tudes can be conjectured with tolerable, or with suffi cient certainty for the present purpose, -by common le v ening.
To the southward, Ben Lawers, exceeditt 4000 feet, is the parent and beacon of a very lofty tract of moun tain land, to which Ben Alore, Ben Vorlich, and other mountains farther to the south and west, may be con sidered to belong. In a similar manner, Schihallien, ranging to about 3000, is the loftiest summit of that mass of mountain which bounds Loch 'fume! and Loch Rannoch to the south, and extends westward till it nearly meets the hills of Glenco and Loch Etive.
If we proceed farther westward, we find Ben Lo mond, the most visited, if not the most celebrated of our mountains; itself exceeding 3000 feet, and sur rounded by a crowd of hills of minor note, together with the more marked and conspicuous elevations of Ben Ledi, Ben Verna, Ben Vorlich, and the fantastical Cobler, or Arthur's Seat. Beyond this, in the dis tricts of Cowal and Kerry, there is no mountain so conspicuous as to deserve distinction; the whole, even to the Mull of Cantyre, being a heap of mountains with scarcely an intervening valley, unmarked by any character, if we except that group of which Argyll's bowling green is the most remarkable.