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145th anniversary

From: Ian Thompson <ithompson~at~geog.gla.ac.uk>
Date: Thu, 2 Sep 2004 11:24:39 +0100
To: "Jules Verne Forum" <jvf~at~Gilead.org.il>

Last Tuesday, 31st August, was exactly the 145th anniversary of the most
exciting day of Jules Verne's first visit to Scotland...Tuesday 31st August
1859.As it was a beautiful cloudless day on Tuesday I decided to follow his
route. On that day, Verne travelled from Glasgow to Loch Lomond took the
boat to Inversnaid, the coach to Stronachlachar and the boat along Loch
Katrine to the Trossachs. His account is full of historical and supernatural
detail but I think that in some respects his imagination got the better of
him. In particular he refers to "cairns" alongside the road which he says
are graves and that passers by would add a stone. The illustration in Voyage
à Reculons pictures these large stone constructions at the road side.Today
there is no sign of such structures. The area between Inversnaid and
Stronachlachar is covered in hummocky post-glacial debris which is
well-vegetated. The occasional boulders are massive and could not have been
moved by passers by.Cairns are more commonly associated with mountain tops
rather than valleys. Alternative explanations may be offered for the piles
of stones, if indeed they existed. They may have resulted from the
construction of the road itself....boulders being cleared to the side which
would have the added benefit of marking the road when snow-covered in
winter. They may also have resulted from clearing of patches of land for
cultivation, although this was never extensive at this altitude. Another
explanation is that they may have resulted from the ruins of abandoned homes
or shelters. After scrutinising the land last Tuesday, I feel that the
probability is that Verne observed natural features and just let his
imagination run wild. The probability that the cairns were graves is very
unlikely...communal graveyards were the practice of the day.Many of the
boulders scattered about the countryside are white which accounts for Verne
referring to the rocks as being "limestone"...in fact there is no limestone
in the area...it consists of ancient metamorphic rocks and the whiteness
reflects schists, slates, quartz bands etc rather than sedimentary rocks.
Again, an understandable error given that Verne gained only fleeting glances
from the coach in poor weather.
In other respects Verne would have re-discovered the features that so
impressed him in 1859. The inn at Inversnaid where Verne and Hignard had a
whisky is still there, although modernised into a large hotel. The pier
where they landed still exists and the cascade that he admired was in full
flow after heavy rain. The spectacular view across Loch Lomond to the
Arrochar Alps was magnificent and the Loch Katrine steamer was anchored at
Stronachlachar pier, albeit now the "Sir Walter Scott"..the successor to
Verne's "Rob Roy"...but nevertheless over a hundred year's old.
Although I saw the landscape in perfect weather conditions on Tuesday, it
would probably have been even more enchanting to Verne in the overcast and
threatening weather of 31st August 1859 and hence his emphasis on the
dramatic and supernatural in his description; themes he was to return to 18
years later in Les Indes noires.
Ian Thompson.
Received on Thu 02 Sep 2004 - 13:46:10 IDT

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