Page:A Companion and Useful Guide to the Beauties of Scotland.djvu/379

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PART OF SCOTLAND.
361

herrings caught there are the finest I ever before either saw or tasted, and are often so cheap, that six score fish may be bought for sixpence.

The approach from Dalmally to Inveraray, is by no means so striking as that from Dumbarton. The castle and town are situated on the banks of a broad bay, on the north-west side of Loch Fine; and coming from the head of the lake, about five miles, the road turns short round a promontory, and the eye of a stranger is on a sudden presented with one of the grandest scenes that can be produced in nature. To the south-west, the broad surface of the lake sweeps away as far as the eye can see, skirted by mountains of every hue and form; some craggy and bare, others verdant to the tops, with small wooded glens running between them. The range on the west shore is so entirely covered with trees, that little else of the mountains, except now and then a craggy summit, is to be seen. The eye of the traveller at this turn is directed to the north-west. The broad salt lake is the immediate front, with two fine bridges at a considerable distance; the one over the Shyra, running from the glen of that name, the other over the Aray; beyond which is seen the Castle, constructed of dark bluish-looking