LUNGA. GENERAL DESCRIPTION. 163 



Jura ; and beyond it, with changes of little moment, 

 through the southern division of that island, as well as 

 through that portion of Isla which is a continuation of 

 the line assumed by the prolonged edges of the ele* 

 vated strata that compose them both. 



Lunga consists of a long, irregular, hilly ridge, scarcely 

 rising to the height of 1000 feet where it is highest, and 

 generally not attaining half that elevation. It possesses 

 no level ground, but is disposed in uneven, rocky, and 

 often naked eminences, interspersed with patches of 

 boggy ground and heath, as well as with occasional cop* 

 pices of birch and alder ; the natives of these coasts, 

 wherever shelter is to be found from the sweeping westerly 

 winds. There is scarcely any arable land, even under 

 the system already described, where every patch capable 

 of being turned for a few continuous yards by the plough 

 or the spade, is brought into a state of cultivation. The 

 western side is almost entirely rocky, bare, and abrupt; 

 on the eastern, it descends somewhat more gently, skirted 

 by shelving rocks, but displaying a greater extent of 

 verdure, such as is the verdure of these stony and drip- 

 ping mountains. The length of this island is about two 

 miles and a half, and its breadth scarcely one, where widest ; 

 under which dimensions are included some detached por- 

 tions that are insulated at high water by a tide flowing 

 through several rocky channels with the rapidity of a 

 torrent. 



Lunga is separated from Scarba by a very narrow 

 strait, divided at the eastern extremity by a rocky islet ; 

 the tide rushing through both passages, and generally 

 through the whole sound, with a turbulence and impe- 

 tuosity as great as that of the far more celebrated Cory,- 

 vrechan. It is only by navigating this strait, and by 

 coasting these wild and weather-beaten shores, that an 

 adequate idea can be obtained of the structure of the 

 island ; and, for this undertaking, a nice attention to the 

 state of the tides is required ; without which, the passage, 



