60 COLL. GENERAL DESCRIPTION. 



this subject in describing Tirey. Barley, to which the 

 sandy soil is best adapted, is here the principal grain, oats 

 being less in use ; rye is sparingly cultivated, but 

 with indifferent success. The chief cultivation is found at 

 the southern end of the island, where there are uninter- 

 rupted tracts of even land ; while among the more rocky 

 spots towards the middle and northern divisions, the 

 crops are seen occupying small patches and single ridges 

 in a dispersed manner. 



The middle parts of Coll contain numerous small lakes, 

 rarely of any great depth ; together with Accumu- 

 lations of water scarcely deserving of that name, and 

 occasional marshy spots. The lakes are said to amount 

 to forty in number. Like Tirey, nevertheless, it is defi- 

 cient in running water, scarcely a spring or a stream being 

 found in it, although water may often be procured near 

 the surface by digging. This defect, which is attended 

 with much occasional inconvenience, must be attributed 

 partly to the small elevation of the land, partly to the 

 nature of the rock, and still more perhaps to the climate, 

 which, though far advanced in the western ocean, is 

 dry ; the clouds passing unchecked over this as they do 

 over most of the flat islands of these seas. 



To the lover of the picturesque, Coll, like Tirey, offers 

 no scenes to engage attention. The hills are without 

 elevation or variety, while no plant taller than .heath 

 grows on them. A turbulent sea breaks on a shore with- 

 out features, and the distant boundary is almost every 

 where the line of the horizon. The castle is a rude 

 building, situated on the sea shore in a position disadvan- 

 tageous for effect, without character, interest, or accom- 

 paniments to give it a value in the painter's eye ; and the 

 Danish forts, as they are called, which are found in 

 various parts of the island, have little remaining beyond 

 their names to mark the places which they once occupied. 



