July 3d.--Last night seemed to close in clear, and even at midnight it
was still light enough to read; but this morning rose on us misty and
chill, with spattering showers of rain. Clouds momentarily settled and
shifted on the hill-tops, shutting us in even more completely than these
steep and rugged green walls would be sure to do, even in the clearest
weather. Often these clouds came down and enveloped us in a drizzle, or
rather a shower, of such minute drops that they had not weight enough to
fall. This, I suppose, was a genuine Scotch mist; and as such it is well
enough to have experienced it, though I would willingly never see it
again. Such being the state of the weather, my wife did not go out at
all, but I strolled about the premises, in the intervals of rain-drops,
gazing up at the hillsides, and recognizing that there is a vast variety
of shape, of light and shadow, and incidental circumstance, even in what
looks so monotonous at first as the green slope of a hill. The little
rills that come down from the summits were rather more distinguishable
than yesterday, having been refreshed by the night's rain; but still they
were very much out of proportion with the wide pathways of bare rock
adown which they ran. These little rivulets, no doubt, often lead
through the wildest scenery that is to be found in the Highlands, or
anywhere else, and to the formation and wildness of which they have
greatly contributed by sawing away for countless ages, and thus deepening
the ravines.
I suspect the American clouds are more picturesque than those of Great
Britain, whatever our mountains may be; at least, I remember the
Berkshire hills looking grander, under the influence of mist and cloud,
than the Highlands did to-day. Our clouds seem to be denser and heavier,
and more decided, and form greater contrasts of light and shade. I have
remarked in England that the cloudy firmament, even on a day of settled
rain, always appears thinner than those I had been accustomed to at home,
so as to deceive me with constant expectations of better weather. It has
been the same to-day.
Whenever I looked upward, I thought it might be going to clear up; but,
instead of that, it began to rain more in earnest after midday, and at
half past two we left Inverannan in a smart shower. At the head of the
lake, we took the steamer, with the rain pouring more heavily than ever,
and landed at Inversnaid under the same dismal auspices. We left a very
good hotel behind us, and have come to another that seems also good. We
are more picturesquely situated at this spot than at Inverannan, our
hotel being within a short distance of the lake shore, with a glen just
across the water, which will doubtless be worth looking at when the mist
permits us to see it. A good many tourists were standing about the door
when we arrived, and looked at us with the curiosity of idle and
weather-bound people. The lake is here narrow, but a hundred fathoms
deep; so that a great part of the height of the mountains which beset it
round is hidden beneath its surface.
July 4th.--This morning opened still misty, but with a more hopeful
promise than yesterday, and when I went out, after breakfast, there were
gleams of sunshine here and there on the hillsides, falling, one did not
exactly see how, through the volumes of cloud. Close beside the hotel of
Inversnaid is the waterfall; all night, my room being on that side of the
house, I had heard its voice, and now I ascended beside it to a point
where it is crossed by a wooden bridge. There is thence a view, upward
and downward, of the most striking descents of the river, as I believe
they call it, though it is but a mountain-stream, which tumbles down an
irregular and broken staircase in its headlong haste to reach the lake.
It is very picturesque, however, with its ribbons of white foam over the
precipitous steps, and its deep black pools, overhung by black rocks,
which reverberate the rumble of the falling water. J----- and I ascended
a little distance along the cascade, and then turned aside; he going up
the hill, and I taking a path along its side which gave me a view across
the lake. I rather think this particular stretch of Loch Lomond, in
front of Inversnaid, is the most beautiful lake and mountain view that I
have ever seen. It is so shut in that you can see nothing beyond, nor
would suspect anything more to exist than this watery vale among the
hills; except that, directly opposite, there is the beautiful glen of
Invernglass, which winds away among the feet of Ben Crook, Ben Ein, Ben
Vain, and Ben Voirlich, standing mist-inwreathed together. The mists,
this morning, had a very soft and beautiful effect, and made the
mountains tenderer than I have hitherto felt them to be; and they
lingered about their heads like morning-dreams, flitting and retiring,
and letting the sunshine in, and snatching it away again. My wife came
up, and we enjoyed it together, till the steamer came smoking its pipe
along the loch, stopped to land some passengers, and steamed away again.
While we stood there, a Highlander passed by us, with a very dark tartan,
and bare shanks, most enormously calved. I presume he wears the dress
for the sole purpose of displaying those stalwart legs; for he proves to
be no genuine Gael, but a manufacturer, who has a shooting-box, or a
share in one, on the hill above the hotel.
We now engaged a boat, and were rowed to Rob Roy's cave, which is perhaps
half a mile distant up the lake. The shores look much more striking from
a rowboat, creeping along near the margin, than from a steamer in the
middle of the loch; and the ridge, beneath which Rob's cave lies, is
precipitous with gray rocks, and clothed, too, with thick foliage. Over
the cave itself there is a huge ledge of rock, from which immense
fragments have tumbled down, ages and ages ago, and fallen together in
such a way as to leave a large irregular crevice in Rob Roy's cave. We
scrambled up to its mouth by some natural stairs, and scrambled down into
its depths by the aid of a ladder. I suppose I have already described
this hole in the record of my former visit. Certainly, Rob Roy, and
Robert Bruce, who is said to have inhabited it before him, were not to be
envied their accommodations; yet these were not so very intolerable when
compared with a Highland cabin, or with cottages such as Burns lived in.
J----- had chosen to remain to fish. On our return from the cave, we
found that he had caught nothing; but just as we stepped into the boat, a
fish drew his float far under water, and J------ tugging at one end of
the line, and the fish at the other, the latter escaped, with the hook in
his month. J------ avers that he saw the fish, and gives its measurement
as about eighteen inches; but the fishes that escape us are always of
tremendous size. The boatman thought, however, that it might have been a
pike.