298 



<;oast of any other country. In the first quotation, which is taken 

 from Smith's GaeUc poems, there is nothing that could lead us to 

 guess at the situation of Selma. All that we can see descriptive in 

 that quotation, is the mention of " the rock which rises over the 

 white beach." The talk of deer sleeping, heroes feasting, music ot 

 harps, and barking of dogs, contains nothing like local description, 

 unless it can be proved that such things were not known in any other 

 place beside Selma. As for the mention of " the rock which rises 

 over the white beach," there can be little doubt that many such rocks 

 are to be found on the sea-coast. It would be a waste of time to 

 notice any more of Mr. Stewart's quotations. The descriptions they 

 contain are applicable to the general features of the country, which 

 are now the same as they were in the days of Ossian ; and a poet of 

 our own days, if writing on a subject that required the mention of 

 those features, must describe them as a poet of any former period 

 would have done on a similar occasion. The descriptions, therefore, 

 contained in the poems attributed to Ossian, prove nothing as to the 

 situation of Selma, and add nothing to the proofs respecting the 

 authenticity or antiquity of those poems. 



Again, the mention of extensive buildings, with fragments of the 

 walls, still in existence, is, in our opinion, a proof that those ruins 

 are no part of the ancient residence of Fingal. In the days in which, 

 Macpherson says, Fingal lived, the Scotch had no stone buildings ; 

 and if such a thing as a palace of Fingal had at all existed in the 

 place supposed, it must have been, like the palace of Tara, in Ireland, 

 built of timber. Of the latter building, not a vestige has been in 

 existence for a number of ages, and we cannot conceive how the 

 " Hall of Selma " could be preserved to our time, or by what pro- 

 ■cess of petrifaction the wooden frame of that building had, in the 

 course of ages, been converted into walls of stone. 



