The steamboat depicted in this work is Henry Bell's 'Comet' which sailed on the Clyde from 1812. The picture shows the landscape around the River Clyde from a viewpoint of Dalnottar Hill. The mountains of the Argyll Highlands can be seen in the background, but the scene is dominated by the volcanic hills rising above the river in the middle distance. The Kilpatrick Hills are built of a pile of lava flows, while Dumbarton Rock is the root of an ancient volcano active some 340 million years ago. Today this view is obscured by modern development, including the Erskine Bridge.