ftances. In other refpects, we can cheerfully praife Dr. Garnett. His defcriptions are clear and intelligible, without the obfcurity, we had almoft faid the cant, of the picturesque tourist. On the fame spot, we receive clearer and more difcriminated ideas from our author, than even from Mr. Gilpin. To his merit as a mineralogift he adds that of a botanift; and, though more concife than Mr. Pennant as an antiquary, or than St. Fond as a mineralogift, his information is fufficiently minute and interefting. In short, had he gleaned only, we could have followed him with pleasure as the copyift, we have yawned over his pages, as over a tale twice told.

Dr. Garnett begins with fpots equally interefting and beau tiful: the grand dignity of Dunbarton, the beauties of Inverary and Loch Lomond, and the majestic fcenery of the paffes which lead to the Highlands, arreft very early the reader's attention. The lakes on the weft, the projected canal of Crinan, and the diftreffes occafioned by a miltaken policy of government in the western iflands, inftanced in that of Mull, furnish fcenes and fpeculations of a very different kind. On his return from Mull, he proceeded northward along the lakes to Invernefs, paffing the lines formed by Fort William and Fort Auguftus, and then returned, after a fhort excurfion weftward to Loch Tay, to Perth. He next proceeded to Loch Leven; and, croffing the Forth at Stirling, returned weft ward, near his former line, in the neighbourhood of Benlomond. He clofed his tour at Glasgow, after extending it a little to Moffat.

Curious travellers will at once perceive, that, in this route, Dr. Garnett vifited the most interesting scenes which the Highlands offer; nor can they doubt, that, with the affiftance of his predeceffors, though he has often too clofely followed their steps, many valuable obfervations must have been collected.

In this tour, the great improvements, by means of canals, first offer themselves to our notice. That which joins the Forth to the Clyde is a moft ftupendous work, not well understood in this country. It furnishes a communication, across the whole ifland, not lefs important in a political than in a commercial view. Perhaps, to have enlarged it, might have rendered the undertaking too vaft, as a part of the canal is ftill raised on aqueducts; but it cannot escape even ordinary obfervers, that it must have been a work of still greater importance, if it would have admitted a veffel of war. The canal of Crinan, intended to pafs from the western coafts of Argylefbire to the Clyde, without doubling the Mull of Cantire, will be of the greatest importance to the laborious Hebridian. The chain of lakes, however, which we have

defcribed as Dr. Garnett's northern boundary, may perhaps with more advantage be adopted as the warlike communication between the eastern and western oceans. These lakes, furrounded by higher grounds, form a deep glen, known by a Gaelic name which bears this fignification. Through a great part of the way, the water is already of a confiderable depth, and there is a fufficient fupply for the remaining part of the canal from the adjacent hills; nor is there any reason to think, that a very great difference in the level exifts, except what arifes from the greater elevation of the eastern above the western feas, which is fuppofed to amount only to about ten feet.

These are the leading principles of the great changes that have been propofed, or have taken place in the country, in order to facilitate the communication between the different parts; changes, which muft greatly improve the face of this part of the inland when they have fully taken effect; nor can we fuppofe, from the public fpirit which pervades all ranks, and the foftering hand of government, that thefe improvements will be very diftant. The completion of the canal of Crinan, on a lower, but not lefs useful fcale, will not, we truft, be long delayed. It is now ftopped, we are informed, for want of fupplies.

The defcription of the canal joining the Clyde with the Forth, which led us to thefe fpeculations, we will add fron the work.

This canal difplays, in a ftriking view, what can be effected by the art and perfeverance of man. Its extreme length, from the Forth to the Clyde, is thirty-five miles, beginning at the mouth of the Carron on the eaft, and ending in the Clyde near Kilpatrick, on the west coast of Scotland. It rifes and falls 160 feet, by means of thirty-nine locks, twenty of which are on the east fide of the fummit, and nineteen on the weft; for the tide does not ebb fo low in the Clyde as in the Forth by nine feet. There are eighteen draw-bridges, and fifteen aqueduct-bridges of considerable fize. About five miles from Kilpatrick, the canal croffes the river Kelvin, and is carried over a valley by means of an aqueduct bridge, confifting of four arches, fixty-five feet high, and four hundred and twenty in length. The fituation of this bridge is very picturefque, and exhibits a striking effort of human ingenuity and labour.

Veffels of very confiderable fize, for inftance thofe drawing eight feet water, and not exceeding nineteen feet beam, and seventy-three in length, can pafs with great eafe along this canal.

This amazing work will unquestionably be found of great national utility; by means of it, a tedious and dangerous navigation, north about, from the eastern to the western coast, is

avoided, which is at all times defirable; but in winter, and in time of war, a very important object. It will likewife contribute very confiderably to the improvement of the country through which it paffes, by giving an eafy and cheap carriage to its produce, and will greatly conduce to the establishment of manufactures, by affording fo excellent a conveyance of the raw material and manufactured goods, as well as coal, without which it is almost impoffible for any manufacture to be carried on to a great extent.' Vol. i. P. 3.

To supply such a canal with water, was itself a great work; for this purpose, one refervoir has been formed, which is twentyfour feet deep, and covers fifty acres; there is another in the neighbourhood of Kilfyth, the depth of which is twenty-two feet, and which extends over a space of seventy acres. This laft refervoir was formed at an inconfiderable expence, in comparison of the furface and quantity of water which it contains; the engineer having taken advantage of an extenfive hollow, which feemed as if fcooped out on purpofe by the hand of nature. At one part only of this hollow, there was a deep opening 100 feet wide at the bottom, and 200 yards at the top; by filling up this to the height of about twenty-five feet, the work was at once completed; and by leaving a fluice in the center, it can be filled and emptied at pleafure. The whole is ornamented with plantations, and finished in a neat and masterly manner, and forms perhaps one of the largest and most beautiful artificial fheets of water in the kingdom.' Vol. i. P. 5.

The rock of Dunbarton is a black ftone, which Dr. Garnett, after St. Fond, defcribes as a bafaltic lava: but these gentlemen may be faid to have volcanic eyes, which fee every thing in this peculiar light. Staffa is, indeed, partly volcanic; but we cannot admit that the columns of Staffa, or those of Antrim, are wholly the effect of fire; and it is remarkable, that, in the comparative analysis of bafaltes and lava, copied from Bergman, there is no mention of the proportion of air. Lava, we know, affords a very fmall quantity; that bafaltes is equally deficient in this refpect has not been fhown; but we know that Bergman contidered bafaltes as a kind of trap, not the production of fire. Since Mr. Kirwan's arguments have been fully confidered, the igneous origin of bafaltic columns has been doubted; and Dr. Garnett eludes the objections in a curious way. While he confiders bafaltic columns as volcanic, he still fuppofes the figure to be the effect of retraction, on the converfion of the fubftance to a folid, from a fate of fluidity; comparing it to the prifmatic forms of ftarch. But this retraction he explains from a previous folution of the fubftance, in caloric. The curved columns feem to us Arongly

adverfe to the igneous fyftem. We can easily fuppofe that they may affume this form in drying; but, when a substance is fufficiently heated to cryftallife, it must be too near a state of fluidity to admit a permanent curvature; and, when cryftallifed, it will be at once folid. Curved cryftals, in any of the regular proceffes of cryftallifation, have never, we believe, been noticed.

From Dunbarton, the author croffed the Leven. We ought not to omit mentioning the column erected to the memory of Dr. Smollett, the parent and the earliest active fupporter of this journal. He might regret, with Dr. Garnett, the lofs of the paftoral fcenery of his native vale, and the change which it has experienced from thofe fources of immorality and diffipation, manufactures and commerce; but he could not lament the change from gloomy difcontent, uncultivated mountains, and frequent famine, to cheerfulness, fmiling verdure, and regular fupplies: fuch, in many parts of Scotland, is the true reflexion of the altered features.

Loch Lomond's beautiful fcenery, the fplendor of the caftle, and the whole of the country round, are known from various defcriptions. We need not fill our pages with what is found in every defcriptive tour. Benlomond, the neighbouring mountain, is granite, interfperfed with quartz, and occafionally with micaceous fchiftus; and we may add, that almoft the whole of the western part of Scotland consists of granite. Some of the iflands, particularly Icolmkill, afford marble. The view from Benlomond we felect as a specimen of our author's defcriptive talents.

Having breakfafted early the next morning, and the appearance of the weather being favourable, we fet out for the top of Benlomond, accompanied by a fon of our landlord, a civil and intelligent young man, who ferves as a guide to those that vifit the mountain. He took with him fome bifcuits and a bottle of whisky, a precaution abfolutely neceffary to enable a perfon to climb a steep afcent of fix miles. We confumed near three hours

our way.

in afcending, as I wifhed to examine the vegetable productions in When we had got about four miles up the fide, which is two thirds of the way, we faw clouds floating below us on the lake, which fometimes obfcured a great part of its furface; and we feveral times found ourfelves involved in light fleecy clouds, which however did not feel fenfibly damp.

• At length we gained the fummit, and were fortunate in finding scarce a cloud within our extensive horizon. The view from the mountain is beyond conception grand and interefting at the bottom is feen the beautiful lake, ftretched out like a map, its islands having loft their rugged forms, and appearing as flat forfaces amid the bright expanfe. The banks of the lake are seen,

ornamented with gentlemen's feats and cultivated grounds. Looking towards the east, the rich plains of Lothian and Stirlingshire are diftinctly spread out to the fight: cafting our eyes from thence to the fouth, and purfuing the view towards the weft, the high grounds of Lanerkshire, the vales of Renfrewshire, with the Firth of Clyde, and the wide Atlantic with its iflands, are clearly dif cerned; while the Ifle of Man and the coaft of Ireland, blend as it were with the sky, being scarcely difcernible. But to one unaccustomed to highland fcenery, the moft ftriking view is undoubt edly on the north fide, which may with truth be termed horribly or fearfully fublime. The eye, from where it first discerns the Ochil Hills, near the eaft, ranging along the north, till it comes near the western ocean, fees nothing but mountain upon mountain, elevating their fummits in almoft every variety of fhape. In this ftupendous range our guide pointed out to us Benevis, the highest hill in Britain, Benlawers, Benvorlich, and Cruachan to the north; and to the fouth-weft, Goatfield, a high hill in the Isle of Arran, and the Paps of Jura. To the north-east, in the vallies between the mountains, we perceived feveral of the lakes in Perthshire like embossed mirrors. Among these were Loch Catharine, Lochard, and Loch-Monteith.

From the north fide of Benlomond, fprings the famous Forth; here an inconfiderable rill, that a child might step over; very foon, however, the torrents conftantly pouring down from the mountains, increase it to the fize of a small brook, which winds its way through the valley, now and then expanding into a little lake. What is remarkable in this river, is, that even at its origin it winds juft in the fame manner, as, when become more majestic, it paffes through the Carfe of Stirling.' Vol. i. P. 54,

We were not long permitted to indulge in the contemplation of the fublime fcenery around us; we had fcarce been half an hour on the fummit of the mountain, when we faw clouds rolling majeftically far below us; now covering the furface of the lake, and now hiding the furrounding mountains; dark ftreams of rain poured down from them into the vallies, and the whole formed as fublime a fcene as is pofiible to contemplate, unlefs when in addition you fee the lightning's flafh, and hear the thunder roll under your feet; which not unfrequently is the cafe. In a fhort time the air, which had been comfortably warm, became fuddenly chill:—a dark black cloud from the western mountains came flowly towards us, and in a few minutes began to precipitate upon us its contents, in the form of hail, fleet, and heavy rain, We sheltered ourselves as well as we could under the fhelvings of fome rocks, but ftill were completely wet. The cold grew intenfe, and 1 wished that I had taken a thermometer with me, to have afcertained the degree of it. When the form was over, we defcended by a route fomewhat dif ferent, with a view of botanifing. While on the top of the moun