THE

GRAMPIANS  , a mass of mountains in central Scotland . Owing to the number of ramifications and ridges it is. difficult to assign their precise limits, but they may be described as occupying the area between a line drawn from Dumbartonshire to the North Sea at Stonehaven, and the valley of the Spey or even Glenmore (the Caledonian Canal) . Their trend is from sputh-west to north-east, the southern face forming the natural division between the Lowlands and Highlands . They lie in the shires of Argyll, Dumbarton, Stirling, Perth, Forfar, Kincardine, Aberdeen, Banff and' Inverness . Among the highest summits are Ben Nevis, Ben Macdhui; and Cairngorms, Ben Lawers, Ben More, Ben Alder, Ben Cruachan and Ben Lomond . The principal rivers flowing from the watershed northward are the Findhorn, Spey, Don, Dee and their tributaries,, and southward the South Esk, Tay and Forth with their affluents . On the north the mass is wild and rugged.; on the south the siope'is often gentle,. affording excellent pasture in many places, but both sections contain some of the finest deer-forests in Scotland . They are crossed by the Highland, West Highland and Callander to Obeli railways, and present some of . the finest scenery in the kingdom . ' The rocks consist chiefly of granite, gneiss, schists, quartzite, porphyry and diorite . Their fastnesses were originally inhabited by the northern Picts, the Caledonians who, under Gaigacus, were defeated by Agricola in A.D . 84 at Mons Graupius—the false reading of which, Grampius, has been perpetuated in the name of the mountains—the site of which has not been ascertained . Some authorities place it at Ardoch; others near the junction of the Tay and Isla, or at Dalginross near Comrie; while some, contending for a position nearer the east coast, refer it to a site in west Forfarshire or to Raedykes near' Stonehaven .