Imperial gazeteer of Scotland, or, Dictionary of Scottish topography > Volume 1

CORRISKIN.
301
CORRYARRICK.
Tho evening mists, with ceaseless change,
Now clothed the mountain's lofty range,
Now left tlioir foreheads bare,
Anil round the skirts their mantle furl'd,
Or on the sable waters curl'd,
Or on the eddying breezes whirl'd,
Dispersed in middle air.
And oft, condensed, at once they lower,
When, brief and fierce, the mountain-shower
Pours like a torrent down,
And when return the sun's glad beams,
"Whiten'd with foam a thousand streams
Leap from the mountain's crown.
" This lake," said Bruce, " whose barriers drear
Are precipices sharp and sheer.
Yielding no track for goat or deer.
Save the black shelves we tread.
How term you its dark waves? and how
Yon northern mountain's pathless brow,
And yonder peak of dread,
That to the evening sun uplifts
The griesly gulfs and slaty rifts,
Which seam its shiver'd head?" —
" Corriskin call the dark lake's name;
Coolin the ridge, as bards proclaim.
From old Cuchillin, chief of fame."
Macculloch, in his " Western Islands," has de-
scribed the lake with great beauty : — " Passing the
river which runs foaming over a sheet of smooth
rock into the sea, a long valley suddenly opens on
the view, enclosing the beautiful lake Coruisk, on
the black surface of which a few islands covered
with grass appear with the vividness of emeralds
amid the total absence of vegetable green. On
every side the hare rocky acclivities of the moun-
tains rise round, their serrated edges darkly pro-
jected on the blue sky or entangled in the clouds
which so often hover over this region of silence and
repose. At all seasons and at all times of the day
darkness seems to rest on its further extremity : a
gloom in which the eye, discerning but obscurely
the forms of objects, pictures to itself imaginary
recesses and a distance still unterminated. A re-
markable contrast is here produced in viewing alter-
nately the two extremities from any central point.
The entrance, less obstructed by mountains, presents
the effect of morning rising to illuminate the depths
of the opposite extremity, which appears as if per-
petually involved in the shadows of night. Silence
and solitude seem for ever to reign amid the fearful
stillness and the absolute vacuity around. At every
moment the spectator is inclined to hush his foot-
steps and suspend his breath, to listen for same sound
which may recall the idea of life or of motion. If
the fall of a cascade is by chance heard, it but serves
by its faint and interrupted noise to remind him of
its distance, and of the magnitude of the mountain
boundary ; which, though comprehended by a glance
of the eye, and as if within reach of the hand, is
everywhere too remote to betray the course of the
torrent. The effect of simplicity and proportion in
diminishing the magnitude of objects is here dis-
tinctly felt, as it is in the greater efforts of architec-
ture : those who have seen the interior of York
Cathedral will understand the allusion. The length
of the valley is nearly four miles, and its breadth
about one ; while the mountains that enclose it rise
with an acclivity so great, that the spectator situ-
ated at their base views all their summits around
him ; casting his eye over the continuous plane of
their sides, as they extend upwards in solid beds of
roek for nearly a mile, and present a barrier over
which there is no egress. Yet on entering it he
will probably imagine it a mile in length, and fancy
the lake, which occupies nearly the whole, reduced
to the dimension of a few hundred yards. It is not
till he has advanced for a mile or more, and finds
the boundary still retiring before him unchanged,
and his distant companions becoming invisible, that
he discovers his error, and the whole force and effect
of the scene becomes impressed on his mind. He
who would paint Coruisk must combine with the
powers of the landscape-painter those of the poet :
it is to the imagination, not to the eye, that his
efforts must be directed."
CORRYARRICK, a wild and lofty ridge of monn-
tains on the south-east flank of the great glen of
Scotland, forming a vast natural barrier between
the central part of that glen and the upper part of
Strathspey. A military road was constructed over
it from Fort Augustus to Garviemore, but has been
allowed to fall into disrepair, and is now used only
by pedestrians aud drovers. The ascent on the
south-east side is by seventeen traverses, like the
wormings of a corkscrew, and passes over several
brook-cuts and gullies by means of bridges; and
the descent on the other side is not mitch dissimilar.
The tortuosities of the road, rendered absolutely
necessary by the nature of the ground, greatly in-
crease the real distance, which from base to base
does not exceed 5 miles. Skrine, speaking of this
pass, says : " Our road soon growing inexpressibly
arduous, wound round the rocky hills overhanging
Fort -Augustus and Loch-Ness; and elevated us
to a height truly terrific, — springing sometimes
from point to point over alpine bridges, — and at
others pursuing narrow ridges of rock, frightfully
impending over tremendous precipices. With a
perpetual succession of these laborious inequalities,
and their corresponding scenery, we passed the
mountain Corryuragan, crossed the two sources of
the Tarff, and began to ascend the mightier base of
Corryarriek. The wildest and most dreary solitude
of Siberia cannot display a scene more desolate than
that which extended round us, as far as the eye
could reach on cither side ; no vestiges of living
creatures or their habitations enlivening the desert,
and nothing appearing but disjointed rocks, broken
torrents, and the tops of more distant mountains.
The road alone bore tho form of being a human
work ; and as it began to ascend the furrowed side
of Corryarriek, high stakes placed at equal distances
marked its progress, to prevent the inevitable de-
struction which must await those hardy travellers,
who venturing over this pass in times of snow,
might deviate from the regular track. The unusual
display of their high points, bleached with perpet-
ual storms, sometimes extending in a long line of
ascent athwart the mountain, and at others rising
in a zigzag direction over terraces almost paral-
lel, could not fail to astonish and confound a
stranger, with the height before him to be sur-
mounted. The road grew more laborious, and the
precipice more tremendous, as we approached the
summit, broad patches of snow filling the clefts and
hollows around us on each side. The weather also,
which had gradually declined from its morning
splendour, assumed now a tempestuous aspect ; the
rain heat furiously against us, with terrific gusts of
wind; and a thick fog, still more alarming, whirl-
ing round the summit of the mountain, frequently
enveloped us in a temporary obscurity. Drenched
with the wet, as we did not dare to continue in our
carriages, at length we reached a circular spot,
traced out on the highest point of the mountain,
and immediately began to descend, by a dangerous
and rapid zigzag, from terrace to terrace, with in-
cessant turnings, so short and so narrow as to re-
quire the utmost circumspection in compassing
them. It may easily be imagined how wonderfully
precipitate this singular descent is, when I add,
that rn the progress of little more than two painful
miles, we unravelled the whole labyrinth of that
eminence, which it cost us so much labour, and