IS FINGAL'S CAVE ARTIFICIAL? 237 



130 feet long, how could the sea attack the landward, southeast end, 

 and carve a trench 45 to 50 feet deep, where it is geologically impos- 

 sible that a " fault " or " weak place " aided the natural force ? The 

 channel of Bouchaillie, seen from the cliff above, is a canal cut through 

 the columnar basalt, and taking a slice from that conoidal pile of 

 columns about thirty feet high, which is seen a few yards to the right 

 of the Colonnade and Fingal's Cave. Where is the debris ? Why 

 should it be crossed at right angles by the passage leading into the 

 Clamshell Cave ? The Causeway here presents an extensive surface, 

 which terminates in a long, projecting point at the eastern side of the 

 Great Cave. It is formed normally. The heads of columns show in 

 a compact and serried phalanx. Each row protects the other in turn. 

 The tesselated pavement, as on the Irish coast, is a firm, impenetrable 

 mass, showing by its steepness its utter contempt for the wavelets 

 which could not break those ranks in a geological seon. There is 

 nothing to prepare the scientific mind, distrustful of abrupt changes, 

 for the adjacent excavation. Its dimensions are, from the top of the 

 arch to the cliff above, 30 feet ; to the water, 66 feet ; to the bottom, 

 88 feet. Its breadth of 42 feet continues to within a small distance 

 of the inner extremity, when it is reduced to 22 feet. The total 

 length is 227 feet. 



It is usually said to have been formed by erosion at the base. The 

 columns, falling, dragged down a part of the roof, aided by a fissure 

 which divides the ceiling. The tuff is not eroded even at the south- 

 west end of the island. These pillars, however strong and enduring, 

 are each composed of many separate joints or pieces, built up one upon 

 another. They do not adhere in any way together, but merely rest 

 mechanically upon each other, and are easily detachable. The capitals 

 beyond cling to the roof. There is no fissure. In Boat Cave, tuff is 

 undermined for 1,800 square feet, yet the columns stand wedged across 

 12 feet of width. At Tanaga Island, in the Aleutian group, the broken 

 columns form a slightly convex roof across an opening 20 feet wide. 

 No such Gothic arch was ever formed by Nature. It is strikingly 

 Phoenician. No natural cave has an entrance higher than the interior. 

 A tidal or earthquake wave would not reach the top of the arch. The 

 cave is post-glacial. The upheaval of that part of Scotland is put at 

 25 feet. It would not bring the confused basalt within reach of the 

 waves. Their breaching power is easily calculated. It is determined 

 in this case by the frail wall to the east. For a merciless ocean select- 

 ing this victim of his fury, and 



" Down-bearing with his whole Atlantic weight 

 Of tide and tempest on the structure's base," 



and " flashing to that structure's topmost height," in his blind frenzy 

 would have swept through the loose drums to the right. Montalembert 

 thought it far inferior to any cathedral, or even a monastic church 

 such as Cluny or Vezelay. If "raising (!) a minster," it would have 



