NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF GLASGOW. 89 



down upon it from the sides of its higher hills on the east side, it 

 appears a perfect network of lochs, islands, and arms of the sea, 

 and it is difficult at all points to say where land ends and water 

 begins. Arms of the sea, such as Loch Maddy, stretch away 

 inland from the east coast, until only separated from the Atlantic 

 on the west by an isthmus of a few yards in width,* while the 

 land on either side is studded with innumerable fresh-water lochs, 

 and cut up in every direction by the ramifications of the offshoots 

 from the sea. Ben Eabhal and Ben Lee are the only hills of any 

 altitude, and the lower range of the Grogary hills bounds the flat 

 land in the west. Beyond these stretches the pastoral country 

 before referred to. 



Benbecula is very similar, being mossy land studded with lochs, 

 with a pastoral seaboard on the west side. 



In the scenery of South Uist the same rugged grandeur which 

 we rueetvwith in Harris is combined with the flatter, water-inter- 

 sected, and pastoral descriptions of country. The high hills of 

 Hecla and Ben More, and their connecting range, form the iron- 

 bound east coast. The central portions are mossy moorland, and 

 the west side pastoral, fringed with sand-hills — an admirable barrier 

 to the encroachment of the Atlantic waves. 



Much the same scenery is found in Barra, but there are no high 

 hills; but when we come to the lesser islands of Mingalay and 

 Bernera, or Barra Head, a magnificent precipitous coast frowns over 

 the Atlantic. The cliffs of Mingalay rival in sheer precipitous 

 front the famed cliffs of St. Kilda, and at no locality in Scotland 

 of the same size, I believe, will be seen a more wonderful colony 

 of rock-birds than on the Stack of Lianamull, behind the cliffs of 

 Mingalay. 



The geological formation of the Outer Hebrides consists ex- 

 clusively of gneiss rocks, with a poor surface soil and a large pro- 

 portion of moss and moor. In the west the land is richer. The 

 sandy pastures go by the name of " machars." 



An examination of Mr. E. It. Alston's exhaustive paper on the 

 Mammalia of Scotland, prepared at the request of the Council of 

 this Society (vide " Fauna of Scotland"), and of the table at page 

 •i of the same, will show, that of twenty-four terrestrial Mammals 



* The neck of land separating Loch Maddy from the Sound of Harris is 

 only from 15 to 20 yards in width. 



