STAFFA. GENERAL DESCRIPTION. 7 



130 feet, and the lateral dimensions gradually contracting 

 to its termination. The inside is rude, irregular, and 

 without interest. 



Immediately beyond this cave the columns become 

 straight, although irregularly placed; their broken ends 

 forming a rude stair, by which access is obtained from 

 the surface of the island to the causeway and to the 

 great cave. 



Beneath this part of the cliff is situated the insulated 

 rock called Buachaille, (the herdsman;) a name very 

 commonly applied throughout the Highlands to remark- 

 able mountains as well as rocks. The correspondence 

 of the Greek term (Bovxoxog) is only one, among many 

 well known to philologists, which tends to show the 

 common origin of the Greek and Gaelic languages. 

 This rock is a conoidal pile of columns rising to a 

 height of about thirty feet from the surface of the 

 water; and it appears to lie on a bed of horizontal 

 columns, which is, like those before described, incur- 

 vated, with its concavity upwards. This bed is only 

 visible about low water, in many respects the most 

 favourable period for examining Staffa, as well as for 

 viewing its beauties to the greatest advantage. 



The columns which compose the Buachaille are, on 

 one side, obliquely placed in a sort of conformity to 

 the side of the cone ; while the opposite one is formed 

 by the summits of ranges of pillars gradually decreasing 

 in length. But it is also plain that a large portion 

 of them tend to the imaginary apex of the rock, as if 

 they had been piled against some conoidal nucleus. 

 All these objects, curious and beautiful as they must 

 be considered, are nevertheless eclipsed by the superior 

 grandeur and more regular arrangements of the erect 

 and straight columns which commence at this point 

 and extend to the westward ; forming the great facade 

 of the island, and containing those caves which con- 

 stitute its principal points of attraction. To render the 



