464 THE CHEMISTRY OF CREATION. 



and the resisting portions consequently stand 

 out in relief, and present the most grotesque 

 appearances. The most curious resemblances 

 of pillars, bridges, and porticos appear as the 

 evidence of the destructive power of these 

 waves. Here and there one might imagine 

 that we beheld a vast cathedral in ruins, the 

 pointed arch is there, but the fretted aisle and 

 stately pillar are not. The roaring music of 

 tumultuous waters forms the harmony of these 

 natural temples, and the congregation, crowds of 

 sea-birds screaming to their young, which line 

 the shelf-like projections on the cliffs. 



Dr. Hibbert gives an animated description of 

 the effects of these great billows upon certain 

 parts of the rocky coast of the Shetland isles : 

 "The most sublime scene is where a mural 

 pile of porphyry, escaping the process of disin- 

 tegration that is devastating the coast, appears 

 to have been left as a sort of a rampart against 

 the inroads of the ocean. The Atlantic, when 

 provoked by wintry gales, batters against it 

 with all the force of real artillery, the waves 

 having in their repeated assaults forced them- 

 selves an entrance. This breach, named the 

 Grind of Navir, is widened every winter by 

 the overwhelming surge that, finding a pas- 

 sage through it, separates large stones from its 

 sides, and forces them to a distance of no less 



