368 



• KNO^VL.EDGE ♦ 



[Oct. 31, 1884. 



will feel that he who has not seen the Hebrides knows 

 not the principal mountain beauties of the British isles. 



The Orkney Islands, divided from the north of Scotland 

 by the tempest scourged Pentland Firth, have a much 

 milder climate than is popularly ascribed to these far-away 

 regions. The Gulf Stream even here exercises considerable 

 thermal power, and for a series of years the mean temper- 

 ature of even January and February has been no lower 

 than 39°. The rocks, which form the prominent features 

 of these strange islands, are of the Old Eed Sandstone for- 

 mation, except only in a granitic district near Stromness. 

 The group numbers about seventy islands, and, as in the 

 case of the Hebrides, many of them are uninhabited. 

 Some of the islands are low, and the steep cliffs generally 

 rise to the west, and the heights of Hoy are justly 

 reckoned as among the most remarkable sea-cliffs in all 

 Scotland. The Shetland Islands, over a hundred in num- 

 ber, are far away in the terrible North Sea, fifty-six 

 miles north of the Orkney group. They are for the 

 greater part simply heaths, forbidding and inexpressibly 

 dreary, fenced as well as they need be against the terrible 

 Atlantic gales by giant cliffs. 



Returning again to the mainland from Duncansby Head 

 to Cape Wrath, the shores present much the same wild, 

 rugged front, cleft l)y deep fissures, and jutting out wher- 

 ever the cliffs are hardest, into grim, fortress like promon- 

 tories. The east coast is chiefly noticeable for the Moray 

 Firth and the Firths of the Tay and Forth. The Moray 

 Firlh is a great indentation of the German Ocean ; another 

 estuary of the Tay forms with it the two great striking 

 features of the east coast, until proceeding south we reach 

 the famous Firth of Forth — the great estuary of the River 

 Forth, which lies between the counties of Clackmannan, 

 Perth, and Fife, on the north ; and those of Sterling, 

 Linlithgow, Edinburgh, and Had-lington on the south. 

 Close to Tantallon Castle the Firth is fifteen miles wide, 

 and it encloses the isle of May, the historic Bass rock, and 

 receives into its broad waters some of the most famous of 

 Scotch rivers. The mo.st fertile and richly-cultivated lands 

 in Scotland lie along its shores, and the whole region is rich 

 in romance and history. 



I have specified some of the great headlands of the 

 coasts of Scotland, but not all ; and I here give a 

 list of the principal, which, taken alphabetically, are, 

 — ^Ardnamurchan Point, in the west of Mull ; Buchan 

 Ness, Aberdeenshire ; Cape Wrath, Sutherlandshire ; Dun- 

 cansby Head, Caithness ; Dunnet Head and the Ord, in the 

 same county ; Fife Ness, the eastern extremity of Fifeshire; 

 fvinnaird Head, Aberdeenshire, north of Buchan Ness ; 

 Mull of Cantyre, already mentioned ; and the Mull of 

 Galloway. Then there are Tarbet Ness, north of the 

 entrance to the Moray Forth, and Whiten Head. On 

 the extreme southeast, St. Abb's Head marks the first 

 headland of Scotland north of the English shore. 



Such are the salient natural features of the physical 

 geography of North Britain, taking a very rapid and 

 slight survey of the coast generally. It is impossible but 

 that such a swift flight should be in many ways full of 

 omissions. Much that is worthy of great detailed notice 

 has been unavoidably passed over with, perhaps, a word of 

 •.illusion. This remark applies indeed to the general sketch 

 given of the shores of England on the west. The object 

 of the writer will be fully gained, however, if some readers 

 ■.ire induced by these papers to seriously consider the ques- 

 tion whether, before seeking foreign shores for the pic- 

 turesque, the new, and the grand, they have really made 

 themselves familiar with the many beautiful and, in some 

 cases, extraordinary features of their native coasts. 

 (To he continued.) 



SOME BOOKS ON OUR TABLE. 



llaMdhook for the Dominion of Canada. Prepared for 

 the Meeting of the British Association at Montreal, 1884. 

 By S. E. Dawson. (Montreal : Dawson Bros.) 1884.— 

 Although this capital handbook is stated to have been 

 prepared for this year's meeting of the British Association 

 at Montreal, it happens, fortunately for the reviewer into 

 whose hands it falls so late, that its interest is scarcely of 

 the ephemeral character which its title would seem to indi- 

 cate. In fact, Mr. Dawson has produced a guide-book 

 which will prove invaluable to the Canadian traveller after 

 the memory of the visit of the British Association to the 

 Dominion shall have become but dim and faint. The 

 history, geology, botany, and meteorology of Canada are all 

 discussed. The fullest details as to railways, steamers, and 

 other modes of conveyance given ; numerous plans for 

 excursions furnished ; full descriptions of the chief cities 

 and towns given, with hotel charges, cab fares, lists of 

 churches, restaurants, and amusements, <tc. ; in fact, every- 

 thing that is necessary to enable the tourist to visit the 

 countrj' with pleasure, profit, and economy. The maps are 

 very good. 



An Important Qiustion in Metrology, <L-c. By Chas. 

 A. L. ToTTEN, M.A., 1st Lieut 4th F. S. Artillery. 

 (London : Triibner i Co.). — It is really pitiable to find a 

 man possessing a certain amount of ability, like Mr. 

 Totten, wasting precious time in the way involved in the 

 compilation of such a book as that before us. For he is 

 one of those Pyramid fanatics, who find in the great Tomb 

 and Observatory at Gbizeh, an inspired canon of weights 

 and measures for all time. The way in which he juggles 

 with figures, suggests the familiar feat of keeping a number 

 of knives and gilt balls in the air all at once ; which, 

 glittering and flashing before the eyes of the spectators, 

 appear to be multiplied by twenty. A single example, 

 taken at random, will sufiice to show the physicist how 

 utterly untrustworthy our author is in the most simple of 

 his facte. Opening his book at p. 98, we find him alleging 

 that the mean height of the atmosphere is 5 2414828 

 miles ! Did he, we ask in some wonder, ever hear of 

 twilight, of meteorites becoming incandescent on entering 

 our atmosphere, or of the aurora borealis ? The charac- 

 teristic feature of the whole of the farrago before us, how- 

 ever, is what — for want of a better name — we must term 

 its " cock-sureness." Mr. Totten knows the mean density 

 of the earth better than Baily or anyone else, and is 

 familiar with her dimensions within a hair's-breadth. May 

 we venture to recommend him carefully to read the recent 

 address of his illustrious countryman, Prof C. A Young, 

 to the American Association for the Advancement of 

 Science, whence he may gather that we do not yet know 

 the size and shape of our globe with anything like rigid 

 accuracy. He is very severe, in places, upon Mr. Proctor, 

 whom he invites to disprove certain assertions ; intimating 

 in effect that if the conductor of this journal does not 

 straightway refute them they must perforce be true. We 

 would humbly submit that Mr. Totten himself might not 

 be able at once to offer disproof that the inhabitants of 

 Venus subsist on Bacon's " Novum Organum " and stewed 

 eels, but that such disability would hardly afford irre- 

 fragable evidence that the dwellers (if ary) in the planet 

 of Love were so nourished. The whole work is a saddening 

 example of the circulus in probanda. 



Our Insect Allies. By Theodore Wood. (London : 

 Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. 1884). — 

 We may commend Mr. Wood's pleasantly-written and very 



