E. Loch Eil.
N. Ben Nevis.
1,2,3. The three parallel roads.]
Among the Grampian Hills, a little to the northeast of Ben Nevis, lies
the valley of Glen Roy, a winding valley trending in a northeasterly
direction, and some ten miles in length. Across the mouth of this
valley, at right angles with it, runs the valley of Glen Spean, trending
from east to west, Glen Roy thus opening directly at its southern
extremity into Glen Spean. Around the walls of the Glen Roy valley run
three terraces, one above the other, at different heights, like so many
roads artificially cut in the sides of the valley, and indeed they go by
the name of the "parallel roads." These three terraces, though in a less
perfect state of preservation, are repeated for a short distance at
exactly the same levels on the southern wall of the valley of Glen
Spean, just opposite the opening of the Glen Roy valley; that is, they
make the whole circuit of Glen Roy, stop abruptly, on both sides, at its
southern extremity, and reappear again on the opposite wall of Glen
Spean. I should add, however, that all three do not come to this sudden
termination; for the lowest of these terraces turns eastward into the
valley of Glen Spean, following the whole curve of the eastern half of
the valley, while, of the two upper terraces, there is no trace
whatever, nor is there any indication that either of the three ever
existed in the western half of the valley.
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