APPENDIX 



THK islands of the Inner Hebrides are believed to be 

 isolated fragments of what was once a great expanse of 

 land, proof of the former existence of which is found in 

 dizzy sea-cliffs a thousand feet in height, as in the west of 

 Skye, and formed of parallel beds which wind along the 

 coast for miles. Of the enormous waste that has ensued, 

 we have ample evidence in the numerous glens and lochs 

 which have been excavated out of the basaltic masses. 

 The Sound of Mull is, we are told, the work of erosion ; 

 and the parallel bars of rocks to be viewed on either side 

 are believed to have been at one time prolonged across the 

 channel. 



Of the extent of the great waste that has taken place, 

 much of our present knowledge has been gleaned from that 

 peculiar formation, the Sgiirr of Eigg. It is volcanic in 

 origin, and composed of hard glassy pitchstone resting on the 

 basalt plateau. What is now the crest of a ridge 1289 feet 

 above sea-level one of the most striking natural objects in 

 the Western Isles, towering hundreds of feet above the 

 highest of the surrounding hills was, at the time of its 

 formation, according to Sir Archibald Geikie, the bottom 

 of a valley through which flowed a river of sufficient volume 

 to carry boulders of Cambrian sandstone with it from the 

 distant hills of Rum. The hard pitchstone forming the 

 Sgurr originated from molten lava which poured forth and 

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