446 On Staffa. 



multiplicity of objects pressing at once for regard, a visit always 

 necessarily hurried from the impossibility of remaining long on 

 the island, a boisterous sea, and a stormy atmosphere, are hostile 

 to that accuracy of observation which may preclude future cor- 

 rections. 



The circumference of Staffa is estimated at about two miles. 

 It forms a sort of table land of an irregular surface, bounded on 

 all sides by perpendicular cliffs, varying in altitude and broken 

 into nmnerous recesses and promontories. 



It is intersected by one deep cut, scarcely to be called a valley, 

 which divides the higher and more celebrated columnar part 

 from the remainder of the island. At the highest tides this more 

 remarkably columnar part which forms its southwestern side, ap- 

 pears to terminate almost abru])tly in tlie water, but the retiring 

 tide shows a causeway of broken columns forming a sort of 

 beach at its foot. Round the other sides of the island there is 

 also a beach of varying breadth, consisting of detached fragments, 

 and of rocks jutting out into the sea in many irregular directions. 

 This beach, when the weather is perfectly calm, and the swell 

 off the shore, will, under due precautions, afford landing in va- 

 rious places, but it is on the eastern side that the most numerous 

 landing places occur. Various narrow creeks sheltered by the 

 island itself from the predominant western swell, admit of easy 

 access in moderate weather, provided tlie wind is in any direction 

 from SW. to NW. And for the encouragement of the mineralo- 

 gist, who may be terriiied at the exaggerated reports of this 

 difficulty, I can as.sure hira that I have landed on Staffa when 

 the vessels that navigate this sea have had their sails reefed, and 

 the boatmen of loua and Ulva have called it impracticable. The 

 love of the marvellous has conferred on Staffa a terrific reputa- 

 tion, which a greater resort has discovered to be somewhat akin 

 to that of Scylla and Charybdis. 



It is easy to perceive from the southward, that with this flat 

 disposition of its surface, and notwitlistanding its irregularities, 

 Staffa possesses a gentle inclination towards the N.E. although 

 no opportunity is afforded for ascertaining the precise dip. It is 

 not of importance to ascertain it, nor can it amount to more 

 than five or six degrees of variation from the horizontal plane. 



The highest of the perj)endicular faces which bound it, rise 

 about GO or 70 feet above the high-water nuuk, and these are 

 on the south-western side, where the m«st remarkable columns 

 and where the great caves exist. 



The greatest elevation of the island cannot be more than 120 

 feet above the level of the sea. There are no sunk rocks round 

 it ; but the water deepens rapidly from the shore, and admits of 

 large vessels coasting it close at hand, provided they have a 

 leading wind. There 



