We did not see Loch Katrine, perhaps, under its best presentment; for the
surface was roughened with a little wind, and darkened even to inky
blackness by the clouds that overhung it. The hill-tops, too, wore a
very dark frown. A lake of this size cannot be terrific, and is
therefore seen to best advantage when it is beautiful. The scenery of
its shores is not altogether so rich and lovely as I had preimagined; not
equal, indeed, to the best parts of Loch Lomond,--the hills being lower
and of a more ridgy shape, and exceedingly bare, at least towards the
lower end. But they turn the lake aside with headland after headland,
and shut it in closely, and open one vista after another, so that the eye
is never weary, and, least of all, as we approach the end. The length of
the loch is ten miles, and at its termination it meets the pass of the
Trosachs, between Ben An and Ben Venue, which are the rudest and
shaggiest of hills. The steamer passes Ellen's Isle, but to the right,
which is the side opposite to that on which Fitz-James must be supposed
to have approached it. It is a very small island, situated where the
loch narrows, and is perhaps less than a quarter of a mile distant from
either shore.
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