The loftiest of these mountains is Ben Nevis, in Scotland, its elevation
above the level of the sea being forty-three hundred and eighty feet, or
somewhat more than four-fifths of a mile. It terminates in a point, and
elevates its rugged front far above all the neighboring mountains. It is
of easy ascent; and at the perpendicular hight of fifteen hundred feet,
the vale beneath presents a very agreeable prospect, the vista being
beautified by a diversity of bushes, shrubs, and birch woods, besides
many little verdant spots. The sea and the shore are also seen.
At the summit, the view extends at once across the island, eastward
toward the German sea, and westward to the Atlantic ocean. Nature here
appears on a majestic scale and the vastness of the prospect engages the
whole attention, at the same time the objects in view are of no common
dimensions. Just over the opening of the sound, at the south-west corner
of Mull, Colonsay rises out of the sea like a shade of mist, at the
distance of more than ninety miles. Shuna and Lismore appear like small
spots of rich verdure, and, though nearly thirty miles distant, seem
quite under the spectator. The low parts of Jura can not be discerned,
nor any part of Isla; far less the coast of Ireland, as has been
asserted. Such is, however, the wide extent of view, that it extends one
hundred and seventy miles from the horizon of the sea at the Murray
frith, on the north-east, to the island of Colonsay, on the south-west.
On the north-east side of Ben Nevis is an almost perpendicular
precipice, certainly not less than fourteen hundred feet in depth;
probably more, as it appears to exceed the third part of the entire
hight of the mountain. A stranger is astonished at the sight of this
dreadful rock, which has a quantity of snow lodged in its bosom
throughout the whole year. The sound of a stone thrown over the cliff to
the bottom, can not be heard when it falls, so that it is impossible to
ascertain in that way the hight of the precipice.