HARRIS. MOUNTAINS. 161 



want of those fissures in the rock which are necessary 

 for the production of springs. Hence every shower is 

 speedily conveyed over the surface to the nearest hollow, 

 where it almost immediately finds a passage into the sea, 

 scarcely any number of small streams uniting into a larger 

 river. Those at Rowdill and at Loch Resort appear to be 

 the most considerable. Occasional torrents carry but 

 little waste with them; often indeed there are scarcely 

 any fragments to be found on the faces of the hills, or 

 they are thinly scattered over the firm rocky surface. 

 In this respect the hills of Harris, as well as those of the 

 Long Island in general, present a marked dissimilarity to 

 those of quartz rock, of granite, of syenite, or of porphyry, 

 that are found in various parts of Scotland, the waste of 

 which is rapid and constant. That character which is so 

 striking in the greater part of the Long Island, the abund- 

 ance of fresh-water lakes, is equally wanting in Harris. 

 As there are no plains, there are consequently no places 

 where such waters can accumulate ; and the few moun- 

 tain pools that occur are no more frequent than in other 

 mountainous parts of Scotland. 



It need scarcely now be observed, that a country 

 such as is here described, where unsurmountable rocks 

 and impassable bogs alternately claim the mastery, 

 cannot be traversed with much ease. There are indeed 

 many parts which have probably never been trodden 

 even by the shepherd's foot. I nevertheless succeeded 

 in ascending such mountains in different places as to 

 be enabled to give an estimate of their altitudes suf- 

 ficiently accurate for all common purposes of topo- 

 graphical description. Such measurements do not appear 

 of any great value in a geological view, as the successions 

 and relative positions of rocks are totally unconnected 

 with altitude of place. Every observer will find daily 

 reason to reject the doctrine of the relative levels of 

 the exposed edges, or outgoings, as they have been 



VOL, I. M 



