Page:A Companion and Useful Guide to the Beauties of Scotland.djvu/263

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PART OF SCOTLAND.
245

deprived me of sight and breath; and obliged me to lay myself down on my stomach, upon the green parapet, and every now and then, by gulping, and shutting my eyes for relief, I was by intervals enabled to look and breathe; to admire, and I might say, almost adore. The river, in its fall, diffused its spray in every direction to a vast distance, over my head, and far beyond my station. The water bounded from the pool, rising like innumerable high fountains, and in the return fell with prodigious force and weight against, and partly upon, the green bank, by which, and the spray, I was in a few minutes pretty well drenched. The want of breath and sight obliged me to quit this grand work of nature much sooner than I wished. If ever I am happy enough to see it again, it shall be in a drier season, when perhaps it may be more picturesque, though far less sublime and awful; besides, in such a a season, there can be neither danger nor difficulty in getting at it.

I believe the Highlanders to be stout men, both in body and mind; and I also know they will dare do many things for whisky: but I cannot well credit what was told me at Fort Augustus of one who, for the trifling wager of a bottle