32 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



island is less than 20 to 30 feet above sea level, the excep- 

 tions being three small hills about 400 feet high at the 

 western end, while some parts are considerably under the 

 20 feet. In the centre of the island, and extending across 

 it, is a large grassy plain, called the Reef, which is one of the 

 natural curiosities of the West Coast. It has been described 

 as being as level as a bowling-green, and although it has that 

 appearance when viewed as a whole, it is seen on closer 

 inspection to be slightly undulating. Martin, in his " De- 

 scription of the Western Islands of Scotland" (1703), mentions 

 that in his time the sea sometimes overflowed the whole of 

 this pasture. In the Old Statistical Account it is stated that 

 a barricade of stones, etc., was erected at one spot to pre- 

 vent the island being divided into two, also that the storms 

 had raised a high bank of stones in another place, " yet the 

 impetuous surge sometimes baffles the whole." The Reef 

 is bounded on one side by a broad channel of water, called 

 the Fhaodhail, which has scarcely any perceptible current 

 except at its exit, which is on the south shore. It was by 

 means of this channel that the sea usually flooded the Reef, 

 but this has not happened within living memory. The Rev. 

 D. Maclean, Hylipol Manse, to whom I am indebted for 

 much kind help, writes : " The salt water is still forced up 

 the Fhaodhail a long distance in rough weather, and when 

 there are unusually high tides. The mouth of the channel 

 used to be blocked up by sand during the ebb to such an 

 extent that a huge body of water lodged in the river for a 

 considerable time afterwards ; but this has been remedied to 

 a certain extent by confining the exit to a narrow space by 

 means of a wall, and thus causing a strong current where 

 the block took place." Mr. Maclean adds : " I believe that 

 the sea is much higher than the bed of the Fhaodhail at high 

 water, and that, if the natural bank at Ballyphetrish [the 

 north shore] were damaged, the sea would cover the Reef 

 any day at high water. His Grace the Duke of Argyll, to 

 whom the island belongs, speaks thus of the Reef in 1883 : 

 " There is indeed one large farm on the island, the famous 

 ' Reef of Tyree,' which is chiefly though by no means ex- 

 clusively pastured by sheep. It is a great plain containing 

 about 1000 acres, which has once been covered by the sea 



