INVERANNAN.
Evening.--After breakfast at Dumbarton, I went out to look at the town,
which is of considerable size, and possesses both commerce and
manufactures. There was a screw-steamship at the pier, and many
sailor-looking people were seen about the streets. There are very few
old houses, though still the town retains an air of antiquity which one
does not well see how to account for, when everywhere there is a modern
front, and all the characteristics of a street built to-day. Turning
from the main thoroughfare I crossed a bridge over the Clyde, and gained
from it the best view of the cloven crag of Dumbarton Castle that I had
yet found. The two summits are wider apart, more fully relieved from
each other, than when seen from other points; and the highest ascends
into a perfect pyramid, the lower one being obtusely rounded. There seem
to be iron-works, or some kind of manufactory, on the farther side of the
bridge; and I noticed a quaint, chateau-like mansion, with hanging
turrets standing apart from the street, probably built by some person
enriched by business.
We left Dumbarton at noon, taking the rail to Balloch, and the steamer to
the head of Loch Lomond.
Wild mountain scenery is not very good to describe, nor do I think any
distinct impressions are ever conveyed by such attempts; so I mean to be
brief in what I saw about this part of our tour, especially as I suspect
that I have said whatever I knew how to say in the record of my former
visit to the Highlands.
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