l^C) ]\cv. Ml" Smith on a Suhmanne Forest 



portion of being, the distinctness of his comprehension is found 

 to be vagueness, and the clearness of his understanding igno- 

 rance. 



It has been well remarked, that a blade of grass would be 

 sufficient to confovmd him, who considers himself " a genius 

 equal to the majesty of natui'e ;" and when we examine the plans 

 of unerring wisdom as they are exhibited to us in the objects of 

 creation, we constantly find our progress impeded by difficulties 

 which surpass the bounds of our comprehension. It is not dif- 

 ficult, indeed, to speak generally, and out of chaos to arrange a 

 more or less consistent system of things, as if it were a very 

 simple matter to form a world ; but when the materials of which 

 it is made are considered in their existing i-elations, the opposi- 

 tion of talent to talent, and of theory to theory, have already 

 demonstrated, that the book of nature must be taken as it stands, 

 and, like the book of Revelation, be made its own interpreter. 



I was powerfully impressed with these views in the summer of 

 1826, when, being on a visit to the Island of Tiree, I was told by 

 some of the natives, that hazel-nuts were foimd in the sand-banks 

 along the shore, though the hazel was no longer indigenous to 

 the island. With the view of ascertaining the truth of this re- 

 port, I examined a bay on the north-west side of the Island, 

 where the nuts were said to be most numerous. This bay is 

 open to the full lash of the Atlantic wave, its general exposure 

 being NNVV., and having no land seaward to break the force of 

 the tides, which flow here with great rapidity. It is close to 

 the well-known quarry of Bally-pheadrais, on the SE., and is 

 bounded on the west by a low ridge of gneiss rocks, and around, 

 by an alluvial deposite, from twelve to sixteen feet in thick- 

 ness, composed principally of gravel, which the sea has rol- 

 led in, from age to age. The bank thus formed is covered by 

 a thin coating of soil, fertile in such plants as comm.only grow 

 in other similar situations, and it seems frequently subjected to 

 the capricious workings of its parent element, as the high tides 

 easily destroy a barrier composed of such rude materials. Not, 

 however, that the sea is making general encroachments on the 

 island ; on the contrary, a plain of 1500 acres, of which this 

 bank is the termination on the NE., and a great part of which 

 is scarcely elevated above the level of the sea, manifests a ma- 



