138 NORTH UIST. SAND. 



sea encroaches on the land. In another place, a tail of 

 sand may be seen accumulating under the lee of a rock, 

 or of a former bank, or of some other protecting obstacle 

 which, by checking and retaining the land water, and 

 thus giving root to plants of a dense growth, or by en- 

 couraging the growth of the common sand plants, gradually 

 causes it to increase all around, repelling the sea and forming 

 a new bank, the foundation of future fields. Here the land 

 gains on the sea. It is probable that the gain and loss 

 are throughout this line of coast pretty equally balanced ; 

 perhaps we should rather conclude that the advantage 

 is in favour of the land ; since every sand hill removed 

 by the winds was first brought from the sea, and there 

 is no reason to think that the production of shell 

 sand is diminished, or the power of the winds and waves 

 in transferring it to the land abated. An admirable 

 register both of the increase and diminution as now 

 stated, may be seen in an ancient chapel situated at 

 the north-west angle of this island, of a date, like the 

 other antiquities of this country, unrecorded in history 

 or tradition, and without architectural decorations from 

 which to conjecture its sera. It has been erected, at a 

 time when the sand was at a level pretty nearly inter- 

 mediate between the present lowest one and the highest, 

 as that is marked by the remaining surfaces of the sand 

 banks. This level is also indicated by the proportion of the 

 walls. At a subsequent period it has been overwhelmed 

 with sand, of which the record is also marked by numerous 

 banks of a high level, one of which, to the leeward of 

 the gable, still overtops it, tailing away under its pro- 

 tection at a- height similar to that of the neighbouring 

 banks. But the process of destruction long since com- 

 menced at the windward side, has again denuded it even 

 below the foundation in that quarter, the final removal 

 of the bank being only impeded by the coffins, of which 

 the exposed surfaces are seen covering the ground, while 

 their contents are whitening in the wind and spray. 



