3KY. ALLUVIA. 



a tract of plain ground at the head of Loch Sligachan, 

 subject to frequent inroads and changes from the still 

 varying course of the stream. The waste of that land 

 which supplies the river running into Portree harbour, 

 appears also to have had some effect in filling up its 

 southern branch with a deposit which the ebb of the 

 loch has no tendency to remove. From Conurdan to the 

 northern point of the island, the high cliffs of trap occa- 

 sionally exhibit the species of decomposition characteristic 

 of these rocks, in the vast slopes which decline from them 

 to the shore wherever the action of the tide has not 

 been sufficient to prevent that accumulation. Continuing 

 round the point of Ruhunish, similar deposits are occa- 

 sionally found as far as Loch Snizort, at the end of 

 which, as well as of Loch Uig, the same appearances 

 of waste are visible. The parish of Kilmuir offers the 

 only considerable tract of alluvial land in Sky, from 

 which its superior and long established fertility is: 

 probably in some measure to be explained. 



The shores of Loch Bracadale exhibit, when low, 

 considerable portions of clayey alluvial soil, characterized, 

 like those of Kilmuir, by extraordinary fertility. A similar 

 alluvium may be observed at the head of Loch Harpart ; 

 and the little valley of Talisker appears to have been 

 entirely gained from the sea at some distant period, 

 by a combination of the waste of the land with the 

 counteracting efforts of the western swell, which has 

 thus, as formerly noticed, formed a natural embankment 

 for its further protection. 



A remarkable difference between the effects of the 

 eastern and the western sea is to be seen along the western 

 shore of the island from Dunvegan head to Loch Brittle. 

 I already observed that the eastern cliffs were often 

 covered by slopes of alluvial ground descending to . the 

 sea ; but the western, though formed of the same rocks, 

 offer an almost continued precipice, the foot of which 

 is every where washed by a turbulent swell. These 



