On the Topography and Geology of the Cuchullin Hills. 77 



labour is lost, and our successors must commence from the 

 foundation. 



A less ambitious, but more useful course, is to preserve, 

 by timely publication, fragments of substantial knowledge 

 which we have had the good fortune to collect ; and unless 

 we can look with confidence to the extension and completion 

 of our inquiry within some definite period, not, at least, to 

 prevent others from having the advantage of what we have 

 gained. 



It is with this view solely that I now off^er to the Royal 

 Society some brief notes on the topography and geology of 

 the least known portion of a yet little known island of our 

 own country, the Isle of Skye. The portion in question is 

 the district of the Cuchullin Hills ; most remarkable, 

 (different perhaps, indeed, from any similar district in Eu- 

 rope), first, by their wild and romantic forms, secondly, by 

 their geological interest. Their distance from countries 

 usually visited is the least obstacle to their examination ; 

 their tops penetrating an almost ever stormy atmosphere, 

 their bases bathed by a wild and ever chafing ocean, and 

 their sides and peaks presenting more appearance of inac- 

 cessibility than perhaps any other mountains in Britain. 



The two chief mineralogical writers on* the Hebrides, Pro- 

 fessor Jameson and Dr MacCulloch, appear to have been 

 prevented from minutely examining this chain of hills by 

 the extremely stormy climate, which, as has been said, 

 seems to guard their recesses from approach. Attention 

 to the meteorological condition of Scotland, however, 

 points out a season at which the Cuchullin Hills a,re likely 

 to be less tempestuous than at other times ; I mean in spring, 

 when the prevalent east winds bring generally dry weather 

 to our island, which, on the west coast, is unaccompanied 

 with the cold fogs which afi*ect the eastern shore. This 

 opinion I have verified by trial ; and in the months of April, 

 May, and June, the traveller will certainly find many favour- 

 able opportunities of ascending the Cuchullin Hills, which 

 Dr MacCulloch assures us he attempted unsuccessfully no 

 less than " SEVEN times in five successive summers."* Such 



* MacCulloch's Description of the Western Islands, i., 2GG, note. 



