RASAY. GENERAL DESCRIPTION. 241 



to be worthy of notice. These are long narrow ridges 

 parallel to the sides of the island, divided by deep valleys 

 in such a manner, that the toil of traversing them can 

 only be compared to that of alternately descending and 

 surmounting the ridgy waves of a long and deep-rolling 

 sea. This appearance is interesting independently of its 

 general features ; as it will be found to be in a great 

 measure regulated by the places of the porphyritic rocks 

 which lie over the sandstone that constitutes the basis 

 of the island.* The northern part of Rasay, consisting of 

 gneiss, presents those naked and rounded, yet evenly 

 disposed rocky eminences, which characterize Rona and 

 the low islands formed of the same rock that have already 

 been described in the beginning of this work. 



The west side of the island has a most uninteresting 

 aspect ; presenting long ridges of grey rock ill diversified 

 by the brown hue of the heath and the arid yellow of the 

 Scirpus ceespitosus, the joint tenants of similar soils. The 

 east side is, on the contrary, covered with scattered farms ; 

 each surrounded with its cultivated tract, and the whole 

 diversified by towering rocks, formidable cliffs, and patches 

 of brushwood. On this side, scenes of considerable gran- 

 deur occur, generally marked by great breadth and simpli- 

 city of manner, and by powerful effect ; at times however 

 verging to an artificial character, in the architectural 

 regularity of the flat sandstone cliffs, which are frequently 

 split into columnar and conical forms, rising like towers 

 above the deep dark sea that washes their bases. The 

 houses perched on these summits seem more like the 

 retreats of the birds that hover round them than the 

 habitations of human beings ; the eye from below scarcely 

 distinguishing them, far less their inhabitants. 



The grandeur of these long extended walls of rock is 

 often varied by the enormous fractures and dislocations 

 which have at different times taken place ; masses of 

 immense bulk having been occasionally separated so as 



* Pl. XIII. fig. 6. 

 VOL. i. R 



