206 NORTH RONA. GENERAL DESCRIPTION. 



a quarter, and its breadth where widest at half a mile, 

 the time not admitting of a more accurate measurement. 

 Its position is nearly east and west, and at the western 

 extremity the rocks run far out into long flat ledges : 

 there is also a similar ledge towards the north partially 

 covered with grass. The remainder of the island is sur- 

 rounded by high cliffs more or less abrupt, perpendicular 

 at the northern side, and there rising to an elevation 

 of 400 feet or more. Numerous caverns, some of con- 

 siderable magnitude, are seen in these cliffs ; while the 

 contrast between the green foam of the waves that break 

 into them and the pitchy darkness of their deep abysses, 

 imited to the grey mist of the driving sky speckled with 

 the bright wings of innumerable sear fowl, produces effects 

 fitted for the pencil of Turner and of him alone. The 

 violence and height of the mountainous seas which in 

 winter break on this island are almost incredible. The 

 dykes of the sheep folds are often thrown down, and 

 stones of enormous bulk removed from their places, at 

 elevations reaching to 200 feet above the high water mark ; 

 so powerful is the breach of the sea. Thus the land is in a 

 state of constant diminution at the western end, and 

 the soil is here washed away for a considerable space. 

 The island lies with a general declivity towards the south 

 and presents an even swelling surface covered with ver- 

 dure. The highest point is near the eastern extremity 

 and does not seem to exceed 600 feet. To sit on this 

 spot, whence no trace of human existence is visible, and 

 to contemplate from such narrow bounds the expanse 

 of water every where meeting the sky, produces a feel- 

 ing of solitude and abandonment like that of the deserted 

 mariner on a distant rock. The ship on the ocean is 

 a world in itself. There, even if alone, we seem to move 

 towards the society we have left, but Rona is for ever 

 fixed in the solitary sea. 



Some years have now past since this island was 

 inhabited by several families, who contrived to subsist 



