284 SKY. SOIL AND AGRICULTURE. 



and as if within reach of the hand, is every where too 

 remote to betray the course of the torrent. 



The effect of simplicity and proportion in diminishing 

 the magnitude of objects is here distinctly felt, as it is 

 in the greater efforts of architecture : those who have 

 seen the interior of York Cathedral will understand the 

 allusion. The length of the valley is nearly four miles, 

 and its breadth about one ; while the mountains that 

 enclose it, rise with an acclivity so great, that the spec- 

 tator situated at their base views all their summits around 

 him ; casting his eye over the continuous plane of their 

 sides, as they extend upwards in solid beds of rock for 

 nearly a mile and present a barrier over which there is 

 no egress. Yet on entering it he will probably ima- 

 gine it a mile in length, and fancy the lake, which oc- 

 cupies nearly the whole, reduced to the dimension of 

 a few hundred yards. It is not till he has advanced for 

 a mile or more, and finds the boundary still retiring 

 before him unchanged, and his distant companions be- 

 coming invisible, that he discovers his error, and the 

 whole force and effect of the scene becomes impressed 

 on his mind. He who would paint Coruisk must 

 combine with the powers of the landscape-painter those 

 of the poet : it is to the imagination, not to the eye that 

 his efforts must be directed. 



FROM the general description of the face of the island, 

 its condition in an agricultural view will be readily 

 collected. The almost absolute want of trees imme- 

 diately attracts attention; since the form of the land, 

 often affording sheltered situations, is favourable to their 

 growth ; while its small value for other purposes removes 

 one of the obstacles to planting ; a branch of rural economy 

 that would also be much aided by the facility so often here 

 afforded for enclosing large tracts at a small expense. 



