es a hundred and
forty fathoms deep, a profundity scarcely credible, and which probably
those that relate it have never sounded. Its fish are salmon, trout, and
pike.

It was said at fort Augustus, that Lough Ness is open in the hardest
winters, though a lake not far from it is covered with ice. In
discussing these exceptions from the course of nature, the first question
is, whether the fact be justly stated. That which is strange is
delightful, and a pleasing error is not willingly detected. Accuracy of
narration is not very common, and there are few so rigidly philosophical,
as not to represent as perpetual, what is only frequent, or as constant,
what is really casual. If it be true that Lough Ness never freezes, it
is either sheltered by its high banks from the cold blasts, and exposed
only to those winds which have more power to agitate than congeal; or it
is kept in perpetual motion by the rush of streams from the rocks that
inclose it. Its profundity though it should be such as is represented
can have little part in this exemption; for though deep wells are not
frozen, because their water is secluded from the external air, yet where
a wide surface is exposed to the full influence of a freezing atmosphere,
I know not why the depth should keep it open. Natural philosophy is now
one of the favourite studies of the Scottish nation, and Lough Ness well
deserves to be diligently examined.

The road on which we travelled, and which was itself a source of
entertainment, is made along the rock, in the direction of the lough,
sometimes by breaking off protuberances, and sometimes by cutting the
great mass of stone to a considerable depth. The fragments are piled in
a loose wall on either side, with apertures left at very short spaces, to
give a passage to the wintry currents. Part of it is bordered with low
trees, from which our guides gathered nuts, and would have had the
appearance of an English lane, except that an English lane is almost
always dirty. It has been made with great labour, but has this
advantage, that it cannot, without equal labour, be broken up.

Within our sight there were goats feeding or playing. The mountains have
red deer, but they came not within view; and if what is said of their
vigilance and subtlety be true, they have some claim to that palm of
wisdom, which the eastern philosopher, whom Alexander interrogated, gave
to those beasts which live furthest from men.

Near the way, by t