Glen Roy

“ If then there was a current common to both these vallies, the communication must have been formed by the opening of Glen Gloy through the intervention of Loch Lochy. A stream of water must therefore have run from a point where it had either a free exit, or at least a wide space in which to diffuse itself, to one whence there was no exit, and with a velocity as great in the most difficult as in the most easy circumstances, since the lines of Glen Gloy, wherever they exist, are at least as deeply impressed as those of Glen Roy. ”

“ He went up the Great Glen, and he hasn’t come back down it. And there’s no other way he could have come in this cold and snow—not with an army and horses and cannon. It’s not humanly possible.”
There was a good deal of sense in this. Even Kelpie, still as a bogle behind her bush, frowned in puzzlement. How could Montrose have come so quickly, and not through the Great Glen? Over the bitter impassable mountains, then? Och, Glen Roy, it must be! Argyll didn’t know this country as she did, and as the Camerons and MacDonalds would. ”

“ If it shall finally appear that an impossibility is attached to each, we shall be driven back to allow their origin in human art and labour; since this hypothesis involves at least no physical impossibility, though assuredly a very high degree of moral and physical improbability.
The first hypothesis which has been proposed to explain the appearances in Glen Roy is the action of a deluge, or rather of a series of large and powerful torrents. ”

“ If also we suppose that Glen Gloy was dammed by a barrier of its own, independently of that which occupied the common opening of Glen Roy and Glen Spean, we multiply our difficulties without any necessity. A continuous lake must therefore be supposed to have existed among the present vallies of the Roy, the Spean, the Gloy, and Loch Lochy, independently of that portion of Strathspey which I have described above. ”

“ It is therefore perhaps a more reasonable supposition, that the barrier which dammed the lake of Glen Roy to the cast, existed beyond the point at which the waters of Loch Laggan, if now elevated above their eastern boundary, would fall into the Spey; a point situated near Dalchully. Of the nature of this boundary, as well as of the causes by which it has been removed, it would be fruitless to speculate further. It is more important to point out the magnitude of the change itself. ”

“ Comparing these heights therefore it will be found that the barrier of Loch Laggan to the east is depressed 369 feet below Loch Spey and 432 feet below the uppermost line of Glen Roy. Supposing therefore that the water stood at the highest elevation in Glen Roy in the present state of the earth, it would run into the Spey not only by the channel of Loch Spey, but by that of Loch Laggan also. ”

“ But in proceeding from the head of Glen Roy to its mouth, the granite veins gradually disappear; various sorts of schist, micaceous, quartzose, and argillaceous, occurring in an irregular order and at various elevations. The beds are sometimes to be seen absolutely horizontal, and at others as completely vertical; and I need hardly say that they occupy all the intermediate angles. A similar construction extends through Glen Gloy, and along the sides of Loch Lochy, as well as the skirts of Ben Nevis. ”

“ It is necessary to keep this circumstance in mind till the probable causes of the lines in Glen Roy are brought under review. A valley of a dead level extends to the head of Loch Eil, which being little higher than the loch is of course elevated but a few feet above the sea, of which its water forms a branch. From the head of this loch another gentle rise conducts to the head of Loch Shiel, a fresh water lake, which occupying a narrow prolonged valley, at length descends by a gentle declivity into the sea at Loch Moidart. ”

“ A careful examination of this line by the spirit level shows it to consist of a level narrow terrace, which if prolonged eastward would cut the perpendicular above Loch Spey, and if continued westward would meet the summit of the flat rock that forms the division between the higher and lower Glen Roy. It will speedily be seen that this summit is on a level with the uppermost of the lines in lower Glen Roy, and that the terrace which I have now described is in fact a prolongation of that line. It is necessary to remark that no other terrace or line is found in the upper valley. ”

“ It is vain to inquire into the æra or history of the Fions, whether they existed at the time of Severus's expedition, or at a period prior to that, since rational antiquaries have given up the point in despair. Nor are the traditions concerning their connection with these roads, even if we admit their existence at some remote period, such as to demand any acquiescence in this conclusion. It is said that the hills of Glen Roy are named after the heroes or dogs of this favourite and poetical age ”

“ If by any causes of a nature similar to those which we see in daily action on the surface of the earth, it must have been by the flowing of rivers upon them. Thus the flow of the Ness and the Spey towards the sea, might have lowered the land in these directions to their present level, and thus the exit of Loch Shiel might have destroyed the barrier to the west; while the repeated failures of the supposed barrier at the mouth of the Lochy had in the mean time produced the complete drainage of Glen Roy and Glen Gloy, and with the exception of Loch Laggan, that of the Spean. ”

“ In a word, he found that the clothes would make head and foot sick, and he departed in disgust, saying to the farmer, "Though this place is thine, the great Glen of Rushen is not." Glen Rushen is one of the most retired glens in the island, and it drains down through Glen Meay to the coast, some miles to the south of Peel. It is to Glen Rushen, then, that the Fenodyree is supposed to be gone; but on visiting that valley last year in quest of Manx-speaking peasants, I could find nobody there who knew anything of him. ”

“ It is never quite safe to think we have done with life. When we imagine we have finished our story fate has a trick of turning the page and showing us yet another chapter. These two people each thought their hearts belonged irrevocably to the past; but they both found their walk up that hill very pleasant. Rosemary thought the Glen minister was by no means as shy and tongue-tied as he had been represented. He seemed to find no difficulty in talking easily and freely. Glen housewives would have been amazed had they heard him. ”

“ Good, clean blood—hot blood, I’ll admit, but it’s an honest red, not a washed-blue like your mother’s idols on The Hill!” He always snapped when he spoke of his dead wife. “Golly, if you could set that boy on the right road, you’d feel you’d done something, by George! There’s something to that lad, lemme tell you, besides a necktie and a shine! Why, he could take one of those young whipper-snappers and wring his neck like a chicken’s, with one hand tied behind him!”
“Yes!” Glen kindled to the picture. ”

“ How he stood out, Glen exulted, from the men about him—kindly, futile old Mr. ’Gene Carey, slow old Ben Birdsall, the sallow, spiritless mill workers, even the young blades from The Hill! He was a tall pine among garden shrubs.
Going quietly about her tasks at the Altonia, she pulsated with pride at the thought of him, planning the clear and purposeful path before them. They would read together and study together and work together, animated always by the ideal of service to the mill people and the mountaineers. They would preach Dr. Darrow’s sermons of air and clean houses and wholesome food ”

“ Och! you’d bless yourself to see how the folks crowd about him at the season, but they’re all gone from these parts now, in hopes of saving Linden, I’m told; for you know, I suppose, that he’s missing, and if he’s deserted, it’s said they are sure to shoot him on account of the troubles.”
“Three times there have been meetings in that cleft there,” continued Gerald, pointing towards the Wizzard’s Glen: “it was that was the first undoing of Miss St. Clare: they tell me she’s all for our being delivered from our tyrants; and she prophecies so, it would do you good to hear her. ”

“ Every boy in the school would be keen to try the adventure. I am glad for Glen that he has surrendered his life to God's guidance and I know that he has found the one real, safe way of life. So I surrender him gladly, and I feel sure that you and Mr. Newton will not forget your promises of guidance and support."
Glen went home with Will Spencer to stay with him while he wound up his business affairs and disposed of his options on the Buffalo Lake property to a syndicate. ”

“ Then this young land was slowly but surely absorbing into her own personality all the discordant elements and making of them a great nation; for within the last few years a new race had sprung up in the Oro valley, a race that was neither English, Irish, nor Scotch, Highland nor Lowland, but a strange mixture of all, known as Canadian. The community in the Glen had grown to quite a respectable village, the post office adding a touch of dignity and necessitating the new name, the name of Glenoro. ”

“ Men then hope against power, and smile in defiance of despair. I shall never forget when first I saw Glen. It is now more than a year since he came here with his master, Mr. Hamilton. It was a glorious moonlight night in autumn. The wide and fruitful face of nature was silent and buried in repose. The tall trees on the borders of Muddy Creek waved their leafy branches in the breeze, which was wafted from afar, refreshing over hill and vale, over the rippling water, and the waving corn and wheat fields. ”

“ He was at Sea View, Mrs. Prevost's house at Manley. She had invited him there with the purpose to find out something about the daring rider of The Savage.
"Tell me about him. I admire his riding," she said.
Jerry gave her a full account of Glen's career as far as he knew it. She had read "The Sketch," but he embellished what he had written there for her gratification.
"So he was a keeper of the fence," she said thoughtfully. "Fancy a man like that being exiled there. I wonder why he went?"
"A woman probably," said Jerry.
"That's always the way when a man [Pg 174] banishes himself from society. ”

“ But I'm sorry for Glen—so sorry!" She saw the boat through a mist of tears and the mandolin sounded far, very far away, as though Glen were still playing it in the orchard of her memory, where the blossoms fell, in a last rosy glow of the sun.
Lord Canning watched her, jealous of the new expression on her face. He realized she was carried away by some recollection in which Glen held a part. "A boy-and-girl affair, probably," he thought. "There is always a boy-and-girl affair, but it seldom amounts to anything—very seldom."
Glen joyfully recognized Indiana waving from the shore. ”

“ On sending Greumoch to ascertain the cause of all this, he soon returned, with his drawn dirk gleaming in one hand, while by the other he dragged forward a harper, in whom, by the firelight, Rob immediately recognized Gillian Ross the Islesman, who had acted as their guide to Glensheil.
He was a man well up in years; his hair and flowing beard were snowy white; but his cheek was ruddy, and his eyes had a merry twinkle which showed that as a son of song he had led a jovial life and a roving one, though among turbulent clans, in a wild country and in perilous times. ”

“ For the greater part it follows a direction east by south, but at Newton Bridge it inclines sharply to the south-east for 3 m., and narrows to such a degree that this portion is known as the Small (or Sma’) Glen. At the end of this pass the glen expands and runs eastwards as far as the well-known public school of Trinity College, where it may be considered to terminate. The most interesting spot in the glen is that traditionally known as the grave of Ossian. ”

“ Great clouds had massed on the mountains, and the wind was whipping down the valley, ruffling the surface of the lake. The air grew cold, and Glen shivered. Then it was that they first realised the change that had taken place, and they both laughed. But Glen's face grew instantly sober.
"What will daddy say?" she breathed. "We must tell him as soon as he comes home."
"How does he generally punish a thief?" Reynolds smilingly asked as they walked slowly back to the cabin. "I have stolen the greatest treasure he possesses, the heart of his only child." ”

“ Well, he was lying in the Abbey grounds, and George Glen sat in his place.
Mr. Glen came over to me from his corner, and I called for a jug of rum punch, and invited him to share it, which he willingly did. He was a little squabby man, but very broad, with a nervous twitting laugh, and in his manner he was extremely intimate and confidential. He could hardly finish a sentence without plucking you by the sleeve, and every commonplace he uttered was pointed with a wink. He knew that I had been over at the house under Merchant's Rock, and he was clumsily inquisitive about my business upon Tresco. ”

“ CHAPTER XXVI THROUGH THE STORM Next morning Reynolds started with Sconda for Big Draw. As he mounted his horse in front of the cabin, Glen stood nearby, and he thought that he had never seen her look so pretty. If any man had ever been tempted to express all that was in his mind he had been the previous evening as they stood by the shore of the lake. He believed that Glen loved him, and he up-braided himself for not speaking and telling her of the deep feeling of his heart. ”

“ You might shoot a crook, but you can't kill a brave man when he's unarmed. You're no assassin." He remained rigid in his chair, however, moving nothing but his lips, meeting the other's look unflinchingly. The Kid hesitated an instant, while his eyes, which had been fixed with the glare of hatred, wavered a moment, betraying the faintest sign of indecision. Glenister cried out, exultantly:
"Ha! I knew it. Your neck cords quiver."
The gambler grimaced. "I can't do it. If I could, I'd have shot you before you turned. But you'll have to fight, you dog. Get up and draw."
Roy refused. ”