

SKY. ALLUVIA. 291 



the positions of the hills and sea lochs, and may readily 

 be collected from the preceding observations. There 

 are three or four fresh-water lakes, but of small size, 

 and, except those of Coruisk and- Colmkill, hardly 

 worthy of the name. The courses of the streams 

 exhibit but small traces of the wasting of the land. 

 Like other mountain torrents they occasionally bring 

 down rubbish and stones, but these bear no proportion 

 to the accumulations of loose matter so common on 

 the mainland in similar situations, nor do they offer any 

 example of transported materials of which the origin is 

 not to be traced to some neighbouring rock. 



Commencing at Loch Slapin, a considerable alluvium 

 may be observed occupying the head of this Loch and' 

 extending up Strathmore; encroaching on the top of 

 the bay, and evidently formed by the waste of the Red 

 hills, with additions comparatively insignificant from the 

 naked precipices of Blaven. 



As the upper end of Loch Eishort receives no river 

 of note, it presents no alluvial deposit; and no further 

 marks of waste, encroachment, or alteration of the sea 

 line, are to be observed round the point of Sleat till 

 we reach Loch Oransa. Partial depositions of gravel 

 may be traced from hence round the shore to Kylehaken, 

 where a considerable bank of alluvial matter is to be 

 observed, of which I shall presently give a more particular 

 description. The shoaling of the sound of Scalpa, now 

 almost fordable at low water, appears to be the result 

 of similar deposits influenced by the concurring action 

 of the tides through that strait; and it will probably 

 at some future day unite the two islands into one. The 

 head of the eastern Loch Eynort is also the receptacle 

 of a considerable deposition of rubbish brought down from 

 the Red hills ; a waste sufficiently great to alter the 

 courses of the small streams which run through the 

 narrow valleys that divide them. Similar, but more ex- 

 tensive accumulations from the same cause have formed 



