UNCLE IN ENGLAND. 89 



mentation, and which afforded us a gratifying 

 opportunity of seeing the process by which cal- 

 careous spar is formed. 



" The coast scenery is, in many parts, very 

 sublime. A series of columnar cliffs stretches 

 to Loch Staffin, presenting the general features 

 of the ranges of Staffa, but on a scale of five or 

 six times the magnitude.' In one place, these 

 rocks represent a circular temple, of Greek archi- 

 tecture, so exactly, that the artist, in sketching 

 it, might be accused of forcing nature into the 

 forms of art. The detached state in which many 

 slender groups remain, after the surrounding 

 parts have fallen away, is a singular circum- 

 stance, that sometimes occurs among these 

 columnar ranges. From their mode of wasting, 

 the summits of the cliffs are frequently crowned 

 with pinnacles ; and, in some instances, single 

 columns are seen, in front of the colonnade, 

 appearing like the remains of a ruined portico. 

 One of the most remarkable appears to be about 

 200 feet in height ; its lower part clustered, and 

 the pillars terminating in succession upwards, 

 till a single one remains standing alone, for the 

 height of thirty or forty feet, and apparently not 

 more than four or five in diameter. 



<c There is a cascade here, which is very 

 striking, from the unbroken manner in which it 

 falls over a perpendicular cliff, not less than 300 

 feet in height ; but when the squalls, which 



J 3 



