a district of the shire of Inverness in Scotland. It is bounded on the north by Badenoch, by Athol on the east, by Lorn and Braidalbin on the south, and by a mountainous ridge on the west towards the sea-shore. It derives its name from the Lochaber lake, or loch, Aber; and extends about 20 miles from east to west, and 30 from north to south. The country is barren, bleak, mountainous, and rugged. In one of the most barren parts of this country, near the mouth of the river Aber, in the centre between the West and North Highlands, stands Fort-William, with the town of Maryburgh, built upon a navigable arm of the sea, not far from the foot of a very high mountain, called Benavil. The town, designed as a fortress for the garrison, was erected into a borough; and the fort itself was designed as a check upon the clan Cameron, who had been guilty of depredations and other irregularities. It is inhabited mostly by the Macdonalds, Camerons, and Mackintoshes; who are not the most civilized people in Scotland, though their chiefs are generally persons of education, honour, and hospitality. Macdonald of Glengary, descended in a straight line from Donald of the Isles, possessed a seat or castle in this district, which was burned to the ground, and destroyed in the year 1715, in consequence of his declaring for the pretender. The elegant house and gardens belonging to Cameron of Lochiel underwent the same fate, for the same reason, after the extinction of the rebellion in the year 1746. The cadets of these families, which have formed a kind of inferior gentry, are lazy, indigent, and uncleanly; proud, ferocious, and vindictive. The common people, though celebrated for their bravery, fidelity, and attachment to their chiefs, are counted very savage, and much addicted to rapine. They speak the Erse language, and conform to the customs we have described as peculiar to the Highlanders. They pay very little attention to any sort of commerce, but that which consists in the sale of their black cattle, and lead a sort of vagrant life among the hills; hunting, fowling, and fishing, as the seasons permit, and as their occasions require. They delight in arms, which they learn to handle from their infancy; submit patiently to discipline in the character of soldiers; and never fail to signalize themselves in the field by their sobriety, as well as their valour. While they remain in their own country, nothing can be more penurious, mean, forid, and uncomfortable, than the way of life to which these poor people are inured, whether we consider their dress, diet, or lodging. In point of provision, they are so improvident, or ill supplied, that, before the winter is over, whole families are in danger of starving. In this emergency, they bleed their miserable cattle, already reduced to skin and bone, and eat the blood boiled with oatmeal. This evacuation, added to their former weakness, enfeebles the cows to such a degree, that, when they lie down, they cannot rise again without assistance.