SOUTH UIST. GENERAL DESCRIPTION. 91 



SOUTH UIST.* 



THIS island, the most extensive of the group which 

 constitutes the southern half of the exterior chain, is sepa- 

 rated from Barra by the islands of Fudia, Eriska, and 

 some smaller ones, and by a sound interspersed with sunk 

 rocks. Excepting the sound of Harris this is the only 

 one throughout the whole chain which affords passage 

 to ships, but it is dreaded by mariners even more than that 

 strait, on account of the distance to which the danger- 

 ous ground extends westward. From Benbecula at its 

 northern extremity it is also separated by a shallow strait 

 interspersed with rocks and flat islands, intricate beyond 

 description. The retiring tide leaves a bar of sand which 

 is so nearly uncovered at low water, as to admit of a 

 communication between the two islands. On the eastern 

 side the coast is rocky throughout, although scarcely 

 ever precipitous, and the water is deep, with a clean shore. 

 On the western it presents one uniform flat shore of sand 

 free from outlying rocks. 



The total length of South Uist is twenty miles and its 

 greatest breadth about nine. It may readily be divided 

 into two nearly equal portions, by an imaginary but irre- 

 gular line extending north and south. The western half 

 affords no subjects for the mineralogist, presenting one 

 uniform alluvial flat of peat, interspersed with numerous 

 lakes and skirted toward the shore with sand. The eastern 

 division is mountainous and rocky, and is intersected by 

 sea lochs which enter far inland, winding about in the most 

 sinuous directions, and covered with rocky islands. The 

 mountains which form the eastern side of South Uist cannot 



* Uist ; corrupted from Vest (Danish) the west island. For this and 

 the remainder of the Long Island it is necessary that the reader should 

 consult the general Map, as the nearly uniform geological structure of 

 the whole chain renders detailed ones unnecessary. 



