SKY. ALLUVIA. 



cliffs are in a state of daily ruin, and their bases are 

 beset with enormous masses of rock which from time 

 to time fall from them. The rocks called Macleod's 

 Maidens, the islands in Loch Bracadale, and other de- 

 tached rocks which skirt this coast, mark equally the 

 gradual waste of the land. But no slope is formed 

 against their faces, nor does any artificial shore accumulate 

 at their feet, except a narrow interrupted stripe com- 

 posed of fragments and almost impassable. The clay, 

 sand, and smaller pieces are probably carried away 

 from the coast far into the depths of the sea, by the 

 incessant action of the western swell. 



Near Kylehaken an alluvial deposit of greater im- 

 portance occurs, occupying a space of about a mile 

 on the shore, but not exceeding a few hundred yards 

 in breadth ; while it terminates on one side in the elevated 

 ground, as it does in the sea on the other. It seems 

 to be the remains of a plain formerly much more extensive, 

 since its boundary towards the sea consists of a series of 

 straight lines ; the loose materials assuming the usual 

 angle, and exhibiting precisely the same appearances 

 which characterize the terjaces that line the alluvial 

 valleys through which active rivers have cut their way. 

 The bar of Kylehaken harbour, and the gravelly 

 soundings of this shore which render it an insecure 

 anchorage, equally indicate an extent once more con^ 

 siderable, and confirm the supposition produced by its 

 straight edge and the angle of its declivity. The surface 

 is about sixty or seventy feet above the level of the sea. 



No rivers at present flow in the vicinity of this 

 plain, nor is there, from the form of the ground, any 

 reason to suppose that they have ever flowed, so as 

 to enable us to account for this deposit of loose ma- 

 terials. The substances are nevertheless rounded, and 

 consist of those rocks which are seen in the neigh- 

 bourhood, presenting a large proportion of the various 

 hard sandstones, with some occasional pebbles of gneiss 



