

SKY. COAST SCENERY. 275 



as the open channel appears, besprinkled it is true by 

 islands and backed by mountains, but the former being 

 without intricacy as the latter are without grandeur. 



The character of the coast continues equally unin- 

 teresting to Portree, but from this place northwards to 

 Loch Staffin a long and almost unindented line of shore 

 extends, unlike the greater part of the island, since it offers 

 no refuge for ships ; not even a cove or a flat shore existing 

 where a boat can be drawn up. At a distance, the whole 

 line presents an uninterrupted wall of high cliffs rising 

 in successive stages above each other ; the mural face 

 of each being surmounted by a green terrace, sometimes 

 terminating in the sea, at others skirted by a slope of 

 huge fragments interspersed with verdure. On a nearer 

 examination a greater variety is found ; the high cliffs, 

 which appeared to overhang the water, often retiring into 

 the interior, while the nearest present more moderate 

 elevations, and in one or two places disappear altogether ; 

 a gentle descent leading down from the interior precipices 

 to its edge. The high and rugged summit of the Storr, 

 with its lofty precipitous face and the pyramids which 

 cover its declivity, towers above all; giving the central 

 feature and leading character to the whole scene and 

 stretching away into the long ridge of mountain land that 

 crowns this line of rock. 



In general the high cliffs of this shore present such 

 a continued uniformity of character, that the impression 

 of grandeur and simplicity produced by the first aspect 

 of their continuous, even, and lofty, faces, is lost by 

 frequent repetition; the high cascade of Holme being 

 almost the only feature to vary the scene between Por- 

 tree and Ru na braddan. Beyond this point a series of 

 columnar cliffs commences, stretching away to Loch 

 Staffin and presenting the general features of the ranges 

 of Staffa, but on a scale of five or six times the mag- 

 nitude. Although the columns are not so accurately 

 formed nor so distinctly marked as in that island, their 



