ISLA. GENERAL DESCRIPTION. 



On the north-western side of Isla, the same character 

 is prevalent for some distance ; and the quartz rock is 

 here broken into caves, of which one is remarkable for 

 its capacity; the .receptacle, in times not long past, of 

 some families of the poorer inhabitants. These shores 

 vary, without much interest, till we reach Loch Gruinart ; 

 a deep but shallow indentation, terminating in an alluvial 

 plain where the sea and the land are now contending 

 for supremacy. From this place to the point of the 

 Rinns, there is as little interest as variety ; low rocks 

 and sandy shores succeeding each other without any 

 change of character or features. A cave of considerable 

 length, formed by a discontinuity of the beds of slate, 

 occurs at Sanig, but, like many other caves found about 

 the shores of these islands, it is unnecessary to describe 

 it; since, though an object of curiosity to the natives, 

 it possesses nothing either in a physical or picturesque 

 view to render it interesting,* 



The point of the Rinns is remarkable for the extreme 

 violence and rapidity of the tides which run past it; 

 scarcely less violent and fearful than the stream of Cory- 

 vrechan, and attended with currents even more difficult 

 to explain. In the most remarkable case that occurs 

 here, a narrow channel is formed between tlie body of 

 the island and the two $mall islets Chenzie and Oersa, and 

 in this strait the time of the ebb is ten hours and three 

 quarters, that of the flood being but one and a quarter ; 

 while, on the outside of these islands, the twelve hours 

 are, as in the open sea, equally divided between the ebb 

 and the flood. 



* Caves appear in all countries to be the objects of a curiosity mixed 

 with awe; the seats of a mysterious terror. Among the prevalent 

 opinions respecting them in the Highlands, is that of their extreme 

 depth. There is none of which it is not said that a piper has entered 

 without ever returning, the sound of his instrument having been heard 

 gradually expiring in the prolonged vaults. One, near Dunkeld, is said 

 to reach to Schihallien. Of another, in Sutherland, it is asserted, that 

 whoever enters it will return without his skin. 



VOL. 11. Q 



