MULL. GENERAL DESCRIPTION. 533 



origin of those caves which are found in the Western 

 islands. At a little distance from this, is to be seen an 

 open and arched, but shallow excavation, of great size, 

 formed in the secondary strata ; through the roof of which 

 numerous small streams of water perpetually distil, gene- 

 rating huge but rude deposits of calcareous matter in 

 stalactitic forms. Ash trees and ivy mantle over the 

 roof and creep along the walls, producing with the sublime 

 back ground of the cliffs which tower high and distant 

 above it, a scene of great effect and admirable colouring. 



Among the infinite varieties of difficult ground which 

 it is the fate of the investigator of these regions to tra- 

 verse, there are few more unexpectedly laborious and 

 tantalizing than the shores in the neighbourhood of these 

 caves. The strata are of various degrees of thickness 

 from one foot to four and upwards, while they all lie at 

 angles varying from thirty to fifty degrees or more, 

 their broken edges being cut abruptly off at right angles 

 to the stratification. Thus they resemble an irregular 

 and huge staircase which has been inclined, the surfaces 

 looking to the land while the outer edges are necessarily 

 turned at a considerable angle upwards. In traversing; 

 them therefore, for the purpose of landing, if a step is 

 with some difficulty surmounted, it is only perhaps to 

 conduct the pedestrian to a much lower point than that 

 which he last ascended ; and it is not till after crossing 

 an infinitude of these alternate elevations and descents, 

 that he finds himself on the land at a height but little 

 above that from which he commenced; notwithstanding 

 the great perpendicular space through which he may 

 have passed in crossing this kind of double staircase. 



At the eastern end of this division rises the group of 

 high hills that forms the mountainous tract and the district 

 of Torosay ; visible, from its great elevation, afar throughout 

 all the western shores of Scotland, and the fertile parent 

 of the rains and storms which seem to have erected their 

 throne in this cloudy and dreary region. Ben more is 



