Page:A Companion and Useful Guide to the Beauties of Scotland.djvu/307

are two tolerable houses, and several hamlets on the way. One of the houses is a shooting box, belonging to Baron Norton; the other is called Carrie. For the whole distance, there is but a small flat between the ridge of mountains and the lake, sometimes not broader than the road. The great variety in the woods and groves through which the road winds, renders every step picturesque. The Black Wood is an extensive tract of fine firs growing up the sides of the mountains, and covering every crag; and at the bases, tracts of charming elms, mountain ash, oak, ash, birch, and many other sorts of trees intermixed; and by the lake's edge, an abundance of alder, hazel, mountain ash, young oaks, and a great variety of shrubs and small branching wood, all in its true natural state. The shavers and dressers have never laid their frightful hands on that lovely district; it being, to this day, in Nature's sweetest style. The extent of the Black Wood may be imagined, when I say, from a late survey of it, in order to ascertain the number of trees fit for use, it was found that there were in it five hundred thousand, from six inches and a half, to three feet in diameter. What a pity it is there is no water carriage from Rannoch; for were that