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

at first distant, and the glen wide and hollow ; but
a dead stillness reigns on every thing, except on
the clattering river, which still flows on in no un-
stately bulk. Wandering on, mile after mile, the
glen gradually narrows, and gets more savage in its
aspect : great black rocks, which look like the stone
walls of some antediluvian city of the giants, begin
to run themselves up on each side; they approach
more and more towards each other; and at last the
solitary spectator feels as if they impeded his
breath, although they are some miles, perhaps, from
each other. It is time we should tell him exactly
where he is. Yonder singular-looking peak, with
shaggy precipitous sides, towards the west, is
Cairntoul ; proceeding from its side — as a wall seems
to proceed from the angle of a turret — is a vast
black mass of perpendicular rock; that is the ridge
of Braeriach, said, by an eminent calculator of alti-
tudes, to have 2,000 feet of sheer precipice ; that
2,000 feet of precipice is the object which it now
almost aches your eyes to look upon — a flat black
mass, streaked with snow, and sometimes intruded
on by a cloud, which divides the upper regions from
the lower. It is probable that now, in mid-day, a
hot sun gilds its black front, and mocks its streaks
of snow, while a dead unearthly silence pervades
the mass. It is not so at all times ; for here is the
workshop of storms — here the elements, when they
prepare themselves to come down with destruction
on the fruitful valleys below, exercise their strength
and do no hami ; then the scene is different from
the stillness of the present ; but with your leave,
reader, it is a change we do not wish to witness.
Eeturning to the description of our glen: right
a-head, and almost protruding into it, is the well-
known Cairngorm; and towards the east, stretched
the loftier Benmacdhu, now admitted to be the
highest hill in Britain. Now, after having heard
the names of these mighty objects, let us request
you to indulge yourself in the feeling of striking
loneliness and disconnection with the world which
every thing you view seems to impose on you; and
if you may not have perceived it before, you will
now feel the full expressiveness of the terms in
those lines by Hogg, where he says,
Beyond the grizzly cliffs which guard
The infant-hills of Highland Dee,
Where hunter's horn was never heard,
Nor bugle of the forest- bee;
Mid wastes that dem and dreary lie,
One mountain rears its mighty form,
Disturbs the moon in passing by,
And smiles above the thunder storm.' "
The head-stream from Benmacdhu, immediately
on issuing from its hidden course beneath the gra-
nitic debris, descends a series of five ten-aces, each
looking like a ledge of masonry, and holding a deep
limpid pool in its centre. These are called the
Wells of the Dee. The stream thence is popularly
called the Dee, but is not joined till 3 miles down
by the head-stream from Braeriach, which is popu-
larly called the Garachary or Garrochory. Another
stream, called the Guisachan, descending south-
eastward from Bennavrochan, falls in 2ijj miles
farther on, at the lower base of Cairntoul; and a
fourth, called the Geauly or Gieuly, descending
eastward from Caimeilar, falls in 4 miles still
farther on, at Dubrach. The main river now takes
a decided permanent direction toward the east ; and
all the way from "the Wells" hither, and also a
short distance farther, it flows over a broken rocky
bed, in alternate sweeps, rapids, and cascades till at
length, at a place 6 miles above Castleton of Brae-
mar, it forms a remarkable series of four small falls,
called the Linn of Dee. " The Linn of Dee," says
the periodical writer already quoted, " you will
hardly find to be what you probably expected — a
lofty waterfall. The fall is indeed very insignifi-
cant, and it is over a sloping bank, from which
there is no leap; but in no waterfall, not even in
the princely Foyers, do we behold such a terrible
specimen of the imprisoned power of the watery
element. Here it has got itself entangled in a com-
plete nest of impenetrable granite rocks, which al-
ternately confine and enlarge the noble stream,
sometimes allowing its waters to sweep indignantly
round and round some large black basin, then again
compelling them to exhaust their rage in cleaving
their way betwixt two ledges, so near each other,
that it is very easy — and a very common practice
with those who have sound clear heads — to step
across. Here the dead white of the foam contrasts
strongly with the blackness of the turbulent cal-
drons, and the still blacker recesses of the caverns
under the rocks, which an occasional commotion of
the surface more violent than usual sometimes ex-
hibits. It is said by the people in the neighbour-
hood, that the body of any living being which finds
its way into the linn, can never be recovered, and
— making allowance for generalities — we can easily
imagine that in most cases they find their way into
these abhorred caverns. We recollect, in the time
of a flood, thinking the Linn of Dee would be a fine
sight; we went, and were rather disappointed. The
water had risen above the narrow broken part of the
rocks, and its surface bad a wider channel : it darted
betwixt the banks with the velocity of the lightning,
smooth and unruffled. But of what description
must have been the working beneath ! "
About 1J mile below the linn, at the farm of
Dallavorar, some signs of cultivation begin to ap-
pear on the banks of the Dee; but it soon after
enters Mar forest, through which it flows to Castle-
ton of Braemar, receiving in its course the Lui and
the Quoich, from the north, and the Inverey and the
Clunie, from the south, and passing Mar lodge on
its northern bank. From Castleton it pursues its
course through the Mar and Invercauld forests, and
past Balmoral and Abergeldie, to the bridge of Bal -
later, above which it is joined by the Gairden, from
the north, and the Muick from the south. Its
sceneiy in the Braemar forests, and in Crathie, has
been described in our articles Braemar and Bal-
moral; and its scenery around Ballater, and for
some miles below, is described as follows by William
Howitt, — "The hills are lofty, bare, grey, and
freckled. They are, in fact, bare and tempest-tinted
granite, having an air of majestic desolation. Some
rise peaked and splintered, and their sides covered
with debris, .yet, as it were, bristled with black and
sharp-looking pine forests. Some of the hills run
along the side of the Dee, covered with these woods,
exactly as the steep Black Forest hills in the neigh-
bourhood of Wildbad. As you approach Ballater,"
ascending the river, " the valley expands. You see
a breadth of green meadow, and a neat white village
stretching across it, and its church lifting its spire
into the clear air, while the mountains sweep round
it in a fine chain of peaked hills, and close it in.
All up Deeside there is well cultivated land; but,
with the exception of this meadow on which Bal-
later stands, all is now hill, dark forest, and moor-
land, while below, on the banks of the winding and
rapid Dee, birch woods present themselves in that
peculiar beauty so truly belonging to the High-
lands."
After passing Pannanich and Dee castle, the Dee
flows through a gradually widening, though still
narrow valley, receiving numerous small tributaries
on both banks, and forcing its way through an sllu-