M a c - g r e g o r s .
F l o a t i n g I s l e .
in wood, is the ruin of a caftle, one of the nine under the rule of
the great knight of Lochow. It was once taken by the Mac-
gregors, in a manner that did credit to the invention of a rude
age. The place was not acceffible during fummer ; the affailants
therefore took advantage of a froil, formed vail fafcines of ftraw
and boughs of trees, rolled thefe before them on the ice, to pro-
te£l them againil the arrows of the garrifon, till they could get
near enough to make their attack, by fcaling at once the walls
of the fortrefs. The Veit# * of the northern nations were of this
kind: the antient Swedes and Goths praftifed an attack of the
fame nature; but did, what perhaps the Mac-gregors might alfo
have done, wait for a high wind in their favor, roll the V.elta as
near as poffible to the fort, fet them on fire, and under favor of
the flame, diftrefiing the befieged, never failed of a fuccefsful
event.
I muft obferve that the Mac-gregors were of old a moil potent
people. They pofiefied Glemrchie-, were owners of Glen-Lion, and
are even faid to have been the original founders of Balloch or Tay-
mouth, or, at leaft, to have had their refidence there before, they
were fucceeded by the Camfbels ~f\
Somewhat farther, oppofite to the farm of AcheJJan, is a fmall
lake, noted for a floating ifland, fifty-one feet long, and twenty-
nine broad, that ihifts its quarters with the wind. It has (like
the iflands of the Vadimonian lake, fo elegantly defcribed J by the
* Olaus Magnus de Gent. Sept. lib . vii. c. 8, 9. f Buchanan's, Clans. 138.139.
J Epift. lib . VIII. ep. 20.
younger
younger Pliny) ftrength fufficient to carry an involuntary voyage,
the cattle that might be furprized feeding on this mobile folum,
deceived with the appearance of its being firm land. It cannot
indeed boaft of carrying on its furface the darkfome groves of
thofe on the Cutilian waters ; but, like the Lydian Calamina *, may
be launched from the fides of the lake with poles, and can
ihew plenty of coarfe grafs~ fome imall willows, and a little birch
tree J.
Proceed by the fides of the Toy, fince its pafiage through
Loch-Docbart, afiuming the name of the Lake. The pearl fiihery
in this part of the river, fome years ago, was carried on with
great fuccefs, and the pearls were efteemed the faireft and largeit
of any.
The military road through this country is planned with a diftin-
guilhed want of judgment; a feries of undulations, quite unne-
cefiary, diftrefs the traveller for a confiderable part of the way.
Near Achline the eye begins to be relieved by the fight of enclo-
fures ; and fome plantations begin to hide the nakednefs of the
country. On approaching the village of Killin, every road and
every path was filled with groupes of people, of both fexes,' in
neat drefies, and lively plaids, returning from the Sacrament.
A fober and decent countenance diftinguiihed every party, and
* P lin ii Hiil. Nat. lib . II. c . 95.
•f* T h e thicknefs o f this ifle is twenty-five inches. Perhap?, as M r . Gahn affirms
to be the cafe o f other floating iflands, this might have originated from the twifted
roots o f the Schanus marifcus, and fcirpus cafpito/us, converted into a more firm
fliafs by the addition o f the carex cafpito/us. V id e Amcsn, Acad% V II. 166.
D 2 evinced