The daily gazette., 1880-09-17

Correspondence Of the GAZETTE.
GLASGOW, Scotland,
August 14th, 1880. {

August l4th, 1880.
Our stay in the quaint and charm
ing city OF Edinburgh was prolonged
from three days to three weeks. lis
statues and monuments, its stately
houses Of seven, eight, nine and
eleven stories; its high, narrow
canons of streets that lean together
from the second story and shut out
the sunshine; its old Castles and
palaces where lived Kings and
Queens, and where occurred many
tragic events of history. Here is
still the old tavern where Burns
"put up" when in town, the town
house of Sir Walter Scott, the old
home of John Knox, the church In
which he preached and in whose
stone pavement is his grave, mark
ed only by the brass letters 1. X.
Here is Holyrood, and within
sight is Craigmillar Castle, the most
perfect in Scotland, where the home,
the dungeon and the fortress, with
all the arrangements for hurling
great stones and pouring melted
lead upon besiegers are preserved
as they were centuries since.
From Edinburgh we proceeded di-
rectly to the northern limit of Scot
land passing through the Highlands,
skirting the coast and then turning
southwark via Caledonia Canal. The
Canal is a series of lakes strung to-
gether by canals sufficiently deep for
the swift and comfortable steel
steamers used to navigate the
"Canal." In some places the lakes
open out to width Of half or three
fourths of a mile, and are studded
with small rocky islands covered by
bushes or scanty verdure. The
Highlands are, by far, the most
picturesque of any section we have
seen either at home or abroad, and
the railway winds through valleys
for two hundred miles, ever shadow
ed by mountains, ever running by
tumbling water courses and paral-
lei with the single carriage road,
upon which we rarely see carriage.
The mountains are timberless, and
mostly covered from base to sum-
init with a rich growth of purple
heather just now in full flower. We
can fully realize Scott's beautiful de-
scription of the sunset
ION purple hills descending"
On the highest mountains, the
heather extends only about two
thirds toward the tops, the submits
being of bare, grey slate, without a
sign of vegetation. Ben Nevis, the
highest mountain in Scotland, is the
only one that is covered with snow
the whole year. Even Ben Nevis is
not entirely snow-clad. The snow
lies in great crevasses reaching
nearly from top to base, some
longitudinally and others trans
versely.
The canal, as have said, is sue
cession of lakes, and the mountains
may be said literally to dip their feet
in the lakes. They are so abrupt and
precipitous as to allow of no chance
for buildings or other improvements.
At the head and foot of every lake,
however, there is little comparative
ly fat land which is always utilized
and built upon, or laid out in bloom
ing gardens by the summer dwellers,
who find fishing and grouse shooting
to their hearts content. The number
of tourists is wonderful. One half of
them carry guns and fishing tackle and
are clad in hunting and fishing Co.'S
tune. Even the ladies affect cos
tune in keeping with that of the men,
and nearly always wear hobnailed
shoes. Every village, every house
seemed full to overhowiDg with tour
lists. Tents were pitched everywhere,
and the hotels we're DIVIDED. 1t SEEM
ed as though the cities must needs be
depopulated. Rank and title, though
treated with great consideration at
home, and especially in the cities, are
of little importance in the crowd. We
iostled the lords and ladies on all
sides, and did not care whit for them
nor they for us.
At Oban, which is town of large
hotels and where the steamer stopped
for the night, we applied IN vain for
rooms. Returning to the steamer we
found couple of ladies who had been
sociable and agreeable all the passage,
and to these we related our want of
success. They at once proposed that
we should go with them TO a hotel
where they had secured rooms and
~ -. ,,xo,,ld ha o,,ra to find rooms for