270 SKY. GENERAL DESCRIPTION. 



intricate groups ; while their massy bulk and their squared 

 and pinnacled outlines present vague forms of castles and 

 towers ; resembling, when dimly seen through the driving 

 clouds, the combinations of an ideal and supernatural 

 architecture. The most remarkable of these rocks is said 

 to be 160 feet in height, and, with the form, it emulates 

 at a distance the aspect of a spire, presenting from afar 

 a sea-mark well known to mariners.* 



The remainder of this ridge exhibits other abrupt faces 

 of rock not void of picturesque effect, but so much 

 resembling in general character the more interesting 

 shore scenery in which the island abounds, that it is 

 unnecessary to describe them. Near Duntulm however, as 

 well as towards Loch Staffin, the rocks assume the 

 columnar disposition ; and their long ranges, here rising 

 above each other in distant succession, combined with 

 the masses of hill which they crown, produce scenes of 

 great variety and of powerful effect, if not strictly ame- 

 nable to the rules of picturesque composition. On the 

 western side of Trotternish the plain of Kilmuir presents 

 the largest continuous tract of arable ground in Sky, 

 emphatically called the granary of the island ; while the 

 deep indentation of Loch Uig, surrounded by a double 

 line of cottages rising in two tiers upwards from the 

 sea, each with its equal allotment of land, affords one 

 of the most singular spectacles in rural economy, that 

 of a city of farms. 



As it is chiefly on the long extended and sinuous shores 

 of this island that the geologist will find those details 

 in which he is most interested, so it is there that the 

 admirer of picturesque beauty will meet with the most 

 frequent subjects of his pursuit. For both these reasons 



* Had this rock been in the plains of Hindostan instead of the moun- 

 tains of Sky it would have been an object of greater devotion than the 

 Jaggernaut Pagoda. The Gaelic name of this Lingara does not admit 

 of translation. See the plate. 



