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Obfervations on a Tour through the Highlands and Part of the Western Isles of Scotland, particularly Staffa and Icolmkill: to which are added, a Defcription of the Falls of the Clyde, of the Country round Moffat, and an Analysis of its Mineral Waters. By T. Garnett, M. D. &c. Illuftrated by a Map, and Fifty-two Plates, engraved in the Manner of Aquatinta, from Drawings taken on the Spot by W. H. Watts, Miniature and Landscape Painter, who accompanied the Author in his Tour. 2 Vols. 4to. 21. 12s. 6d. Boards. Cadell and Davies. 1800.

THERE are few roads, however beaten, which will not furnish fome fupply to a judicious gleaner. This fecluded part of Great-Britain, long known only by fame as a counfry wild, interefting, and picturefque, has, within about thirty years, been vifited by numerous travellers. Befides Dr. Johnson, Mr. Gilpin as a picturefque tourift, Mr. Pennant as a naturalift and antiquary, Mr. Knox as a ftatiftical furveyor, Mr. Lettice and Capt. Newte as more general óbfervers, Faujas de St. Fond as a mineralogist, have refpectively published their remarks; while the numerous inquiries of Sir John Sinclair, from each parith, have filled almost every little lacuna, which' hafte, inattention, or inaccurate information, might have left unexplored, as well as fupplied minute deficiencies in points which can never be the objects of mere travellers. A gleaning can only remain; but the gleanings of an able inquirer will be always refpectable. We indeed with that Dr. Garnett had confined himfelf to this department. His volumes, though lefs ample, would have been more interesting: his remarks would have more frequently had the recommendation of novelty. At prefent, we meet with many obfervations copied from his predeceffors, whole pages tranfcribed from works well known; nor can the apology offered, that the tranfactions recorded render each spot more interesting, excuse this plagiarifm, fince the end might be obtained by mentioning the event, and referring to the refpective authors for the circumCRIT. REV. VOL. XXIX. May, 1800.

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ftances. In other refpects, we can cheerfully praise Dr. Garnett. His defcriptions are clear and intelligible, without the obfcurity, we had almoft faid the cant, of the picturesque tourift. On the fame fpot, we receive clearer and more difcriminated ideas from our author, than even from Mr. Gilpin. To his merit as a mineralogist he adds that of a botanift; and, though more concise than Mr. Pennant as an antiquary, or than St. Fond as a mineralogift, his information is fufficiently minute and interefting. In fhort, had he gleaned only, we could have followed him with pleasure: as the copyift, we have yawned over his pages, as over a tale twice told.

Dr. Garnett begins with fpots equally interesting and beau tiful: the grand dignity of Dunbarton, the beauties of Inverary and Loch Lomond, and the majestic scenery of the paffes which lead to the Highlands, arreft very early the reader's attention. The lakes on the west, the projected canal of Crinan, and the diftreffes occafioned by a mistaken policy of government in the western iflands, inftanced in that of Mull, furnish scenes and fpeculations of a very different kind. On his return from Mull, he proceeded northward along the lakes to Inverness, paffing the lines formed by Fort William and Fort Auguftus, and then returned, after a fhort excurfion weftward to Loch Tay, to Perth. He next proceeded to Loch Leven; and, croffing the Forth at Stirling, returned weftward, near his former line, in the neighbourhood of Benlomond. He clofed his tour at Glafgow, after extending it a little to Moffat.

Curious travellers will at once perceive, that, in this route, Dr. Garnett vifited the most interesting fcenes which the Highlands offer; nor can they doubt, that, with the affiftance of his predeceffors, though he has often too closely followed their steps, many valuable obfervations must have been collected.

In this tour, the great improvements, by means of canals, firft offer thernfelves to our notice. That which joins the Forth to the Clyde is a moft ftupendous work, not well understood in this country. It furnishes a communication, across the whole ifland, not lefs important in a political than in a commercial view. Perhaps, to have enlarged it, might have rendered the undertaking too vaft, as a part of the canal is still raised on aqueducts; but it cannot escape even ordinary obfervers, that it muft have been a work of still greater importance, if it would have admitted a veffel of war. The canal of Crinan, intended to pass from the western coasts of Argylefhire to the Clyde, without doubling the Mull of Cantire, will be of the greatest importance to the laborious Hebridian. The chain of lakes, however, which we have

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defcribed as Dr. Garnett's northern boundary, may perhaps with more advantage be adopted as the warlike communication between the eastern and weftern oceans. These lakes, furrounded by higher grounds, form a deep glen, known by a Gaelic name which bears this fignification. Through a great part of the way, the water is already of a confiderable depth, and there is a fufficient fupply for the remaining part of the canal from the adjacent hills; nor is there any reason to think, that a very great difference in the level exifts, except what arifes from the greater elevation of the eastern above the western seas, which is supposed to amount only to about ten feet.

These are the leading principles of the great changes that have been propofed, or have taken place in the country, in order to facilitate the communication between the different parts; changes, which muft greatly improve the face of this part of the inland when they have fully taken effect; nor can we fuppofe, from the public fpirit which pervades all ranks, and the foftering hand of government, that thefe improvements will be very diftant. The completion of the canal of Crinan, on a lower, but not less useful scale, will not, we truft, be long delayed. It is now ftopped, we are informed, for want of fupplies.

The defcription of the canal joining the Clyde with the Forth, which led us to thefe fpeculations, we will add from the work.

This canal displays, in a striking view, what can be effected by the art and perfeverance of man. Its extreme length, from the Forth to the Clyde, is thirty-five miles, beginning at the mouth of the Carron on the east, and ending in the Clyde near Kilpatrick, on the west coast of Scotland. It rifes and falls 160 feet, by means of thirty-nine locks, twenty of which are on the east side of the fummit, and nineteen on the weft; for the tide does not ebb fo low in the Clyde as in the Forth by nine feet. There are eighteen draw-bridges, and fifteen aqueduct-bridges of confiderable fize. About five miles from Kilpatrick, the canal crosses the river Kelvin, and is carried over a valley by means of an aqueduct-bridge, consisting of four arches, fixty-five feet high, and four hundred and twenty in length. The fituation of this bridge is very picturesque, and exhibits a striking effort of human ingenuity and labour.

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• Veffels of very confiderable fize, for inftance those drawing eight feet water, and not exceeding nineteen feet beam, and feventy-three in length, can pafs with great eafe along this canal.

This amazing work will unquestionably be found of great national utility; by means of it, a tedious and dangerous navi. gation, north about, from the eaftern to the western coaft, is

avoided, which is at all times defirable; but in winter, and in time of war, a very important object. It will likewise contribute very confiderably to the improvement of the country through which it paffes, by giving an easy and cheap carriage to its produce, and will greatly conduce to the establishment of manufactures, by affording fo excellent a conveyance of the raw material and manufactured goods, as well as coal, without which it is almost impoffible for any manufacture to be carried on to a great extent.' Vol. i. P. 3.

To fupply fuch a canal with water, was itself a great work; for this purpose, one refervoir has been formed, which is twentyfour feet deep, and covers fifty acres; there is another in the neighbourhood of Kilfyth, the depth of which is twenty-two feet, and which extends over a space of feventy acres. This laft reservoir was formed at an inconfiderable expence, in comparison of the furface and quantity of water which it contains; the engineer having taken advantage of an extensive hollow, which seemed as if fcooped out on purpose by the hand of nature. At one part only of this hollow, there was a deep opening 100 feet wide at the bottom, and 200 yards at the top; by filling up this to the height of about twenty-five feet, the work was at once completed; and by leaving a fluice in the center, it can be filled and emptied at pleafure. The whole is ornamented with plantations, and finished in a neat and masterly manner, and forms perhaps one of the largest and moft beautiful artificial fheets of water in the kingdom.' Vol. i. P. 5.

The rock of Dunbarton is a black ftone, which Dr. Garnett, after St. Fond, describes as a bafaltic lava: but these gentlemen may be faid to have volcanic eyes, which fee every thing in this peculiar light. Staffa is, indeed, partly volcanic; but we cannot admit that the columns of Staffa, or those of Antrim, are wholly the effect of fire; and it is remarkable, that, in the comparative analysis of bafaltes and lava, copied from Bergman, there is no mention of the proportion of air. Lava, we know, affords a very fmall quantity; that basaltes is equally deficient in this refpect has not been fhown; but we know that Bergman confidered bafaltes as a kind of trap, not the production of fire. Since Mr. Kirwan's arguments have been fully confidered, the igneous origin of basaltic columns has been doubted; and Dr. Garnett eludes the objections in a curious way. While he confiders bafaltic columns. as volcanic, he ftill fuppofes the figure to be the effect of retraction, on the converfion of the fubftance to a folid, from a ftate of fluidity; comparing it to the prifmatic forms of starch. But this retraction he explains from a previous folution of the fubftance, in caloric. The curved columns feem to us ftrongly.