164 SCOTLAND ILLUSTRATED. 



coast can lay claim. The shore, however, is here so precipitous and steep, 

 that, from the land, it cannot be viewed to advantage without great difficulty. 

 In fair weather, therefore, the survey of this magnificent headland is generally 

 attempted by sea. But the strong currents and high swollen waves that at all 

 times roll at the Cape, joined to the risk of one of those sudden squalls that 

 characterize the coast, frequently deter persons not accustomed to boating 

 from making the attempt. Sir Walter Scott, in his diary, kept during a 

 cruise in these seas in the summer of 1814, thus describes it: "This dread 

 Cape, so fatal to mariners, is a high promontory, whose steep sides go sheer 

 down to the breakers which lash its feet. There is no landing, except 

 in a small creek, about a mile and a half to the eastward. There, the foam 

 of the sea plays at ' long-bowls' with a huge collection of large stones, some 

 of them a ton in weight but which these fearful billows chuck up and down 

 as a child tosses a ball. Cape Wrath," he adds, " is a striking point, both from 

 the dignity of its own appearance, and from the mental association of its being 

 the extreme cape of Scotland, with reference to the north-west. There is no 

 land in the direct line between this point and America. I saw a pair of large 

 eagles, and, if I had had the rifle, might have had a shot ; for the birds, when I 

 first saw them, were perched upon a rock, within about sixty or seventy yards. 

 Here, I suppose, they are little disturbed, for they showed no alarm. In front 

 of the Cape are some angry breakers, called the ' Staggs,' occasioned by rocks, 

 which are visible at low water." The scene is altogether well calculated to make 

 a deep and lasting impression on the visitor's mind. 



" Tis not alone the scene the man, Anselmo 

 The mini finds sympathies in these wild wastes 

 And roughly tumbling seas, which fairer views 

 And smoother waves deny him." 



END OF VOL. II. 



R. CLAY, miNTEIt, BREAD-STREET-HILL. 



