3^8 FACTS AND INFERENCES. GRAVE AND GAY. 



fulness almost changed into reverential awe, as we gazed 

 around on all the "dread magnificence" by which we 

 were encompassed, for we felt as if we had entered into 

 one of the great temples of the God of Nature ! And if 

 a scene which, however majestic, was still "of the earth," 

 and destined to pass away, could create such elevating 

 thoughts ; to what height, past utterance, will not an en- 

 trance raise us into that house "not made with hands, 

 eternal in the heavens,'" where no storms nor tempests 

 rage, either in the scowling skies or the far darker bitterer 

 heart of man, but an everlasting joyfulness prevails. " as 

 the angels in heaven !".... 



Caverns prevail along the bases of these ponderous 

 cliffs, and one of the most remarkable of those on the 

 southern side is that named Damph-an-Eiranich, so called 

 from the fact which follows. An Irishman was crossing 

 an inlet of his own green isle, with a keg of whisky, to 

 make merry with his father and other friends one Christ- 

 mas morning, but being carried out to sea by a squall, he 

 was driven he knew not where, till he found himself at 

 the mouth of a cave in St Kilda. He was descried by the 

 natives from the cliffs, who at first entertained a super- 

 stitious fear of an individual who they thought must have 

 either dropt from the clouds, or risen from the sea ; but so 

 soon as they perceived his boat, they lowered their ropes, 

 and drew him up, when he was almost gone from want. 



