92 LTJNDY ISLAND. 



massive granite rock, and resemblances the most close 

 to vast works of human art. 



One of these promontories appeared to me pecu- 

 liarly grand, and tempted me to spend an hour in 

 endeavouring to convey with the pencil somewhat of 

 its character, though with only partial success.* There 

 was a cavern cut, as it were, in the nearly perpendi- 

 cular stone, of great height, but comparatively narrow, 

 and with the sides so nearly parallel and straight, that 

 it looked like a gallery or passage built with cyclo- 

 pean masonry; while the massy abutments on each 

 side were so symmetrical, sloping upward from broad 

 pedestals, that I could almost have fancied them the 

 enormous propylea of some old Egyptian temple, the 

 stones of which were partially disjointed and disin- 

 tegrated by the wear of four thousand years. The 

 surf was boiling and beating without, rearing itself in 

 futile rage against the foot of the promontory, only to 

 be ever driven back upon itself, like brave warriors 

 vainly assaulting the impregnable walls of some 

 mighty fortress ; or, as the poet has expressed it, 



" "Wrestling with rocky giants o'er the main, 

 Which spurn'd in columns back the baffled spray." 



Within the cavernous gallery the water was smooth 

 and glassy, rising and sinking indeed with ceaseless 

 undulation as the wave rose and fell, but reflecting as 

 from a surface of polished steel the blackness of the 

 obscure interior. The utter solitude of the scene in- 

 creased its grandeur ; no trace of man or his works, 

 * See engraving on page 85. 



