We have to dip down a little on the other side before we begin the ascent of the Ben pure and simple. As we do so we lose sight of all human habitations, and for a mile or more not even a tree or shrub is to be seen except the heather. We have heard it said that a would-be suicide who was anxious to “lay hands on himself” by hanging up here was frustrated in a very simple fashion. He found it would be impossible to carry out his horrid purpose in this “heaven-kissing” locality unless he could manage to throw a coil over the horn of the moon, a blaeberry bush or a clump of heather being the nearest approach to a tree which could be found. We begin to wonder why there is such an extent of land lying waste, and our mind naturally turns to the poor crofter, or once more to the overcrowded dens in our large cities. We are ready to exclaim, “Why, here is sufficient land to sustain thousands of our population, and we have been quite ignorant of it,” but when we examine the soil we find that the crop it grows is sufficient for black cattle and sheep, but could not be easily cultivated for the support of man. The summit of our hill is not at all difficult now to reach, although, as the “Gazetteer” tells us, it is 1870 feet high. But we may be said to have been climbing it ever since we left Milton. And now we see, what can only be seen when we are close to it, that it is really a hill of itself. To those who live a few miles to the south, our Ben appears only a large cairn on the highest point of the front part of the range. To those up here, or still farther to the north of this, it seems a considerable independent hill, and to those who live away to the east and south-east, in the Slamannan direction, it looks as if it could hold its head almost quite as high as Ben Ledi or Ben Venue. It is even said to be seen from a great distance in the Lanark direction, and forms a conspicuous landmark from the Firth of Forth. We are here in the south-east corner of the parish of Fintry, close to the meeting point with Campsie and Kilsyth. We can see at a glance that it is a central summit of the Lennox hills, occupying such a position as to unite the Fintry, Campsie, and Kilsyth sections of those hills. On the north-east of it, there is what is called the Little Bin, some 1446 feet high, and on its south-west side the Bin burn runs away to the north and becomes a head stream of the river Carron.