s of raising the Highland rents in
a certain degree, and declared himself willing to pay ten pounds for the
ground which he had formerly had for five.

Our host having amused us for a time, resigned us to our guides. The
journey of this day was long, not that the distance was great, but that
the way was difficult. We were now in the bosom of the Highlands, with
full leisure to contemplate the appearance and properties of mountainous
regions, such as have been, in many countries, the last shelters of
national distress, and are every where the scenes of adventures,
stratagems, surprises and escapes.

Mountainous countries are not passed but with difficulty, not merely from
the labour of climbing; for to climb is not always necessary: but because
that which is not mountain is commonly bog, through which the way must be
picked with caution. Where there are hills, there is much rain, and the
torrents pouring down into the intermediate spaces, seldom find so ready
an outlet, as not to stagnate, till they have broken the texture of the
ground.

Of the hills, which our journey offered to the view on either side, we
did not take the height, nor did we see any that astonished us with their
loftiness. Towards the summit of one, there was a white spot, which I
should have called a naked rock, but the guides, who had better eyes, and
were acquainted with the phenomena of the country, declared it to be
snow. It had already lasted to the end of August, and was likely to
maintain its contest with the sun, till it should be reinforced by
winter.

The height of mountains philosophically considered is properly computed
from the surface of the next sea; but as it affects the eye or
imagination of the passenger, as it makes either a spectacle or an
obstruction, it must be reckoned from the place where the rise begins to
make a considerable angle with the plain. In extensive continents the
land may, by gradual elevation, attain great height, without any other
appearance than that of a plane gently inclined, and if a hill placed
upon such raised ground be described, as having its altitude equal to the
whole space above the sea, the representation will be fallacious.

These mountains may be properly enough measured from the inland base; for
it is not much above the sea. As we advanced at evening towards the
western coast, I did not observe the declivity to be greater than is
necessary for the discharge of the inland waters.

We p