A SUMMER RAMBLE AMONG THE HEBRIDES. 81 



times, the line of precipices above heightened some five or 

 six times, the gravelly slope at the base not much increased 

 in altitude, but developed transversely into a green undulat- 

 ing belt of hilly pasture, with here and there a sunny slope 

 level enough for the plough, and here and there a rough wil- 

 derness of detached crags and broken banks ; let him further 

 imagine the sea sweeping around the base of this talus, with 

 the nearest opposite land bold, bare, and undulating atop 

 some six or eight .miles distant; and he will have no very 

 inadequate idea of the peculiar and striking scenery through 

 which, this evening, our homeward route lay. I have scarce 

 ever walked over a more solitary tract. The sea shuts it in 

 on the one hand, and the rampart of rocks on the other; 

 there occurs along its entire length no other human dwelling 

 than a lonely summer shieling ; for full one-half the way 

 we saw no trace of man ; and the wildness of the few cattle 

 which we occasionally startled in the hollows showed us that 

 man was no very frequent visitor among them. About half 

 an hour before sunset we reached the midway shieling. 



Rarely have I seen a more interesting spot, or one that, 

 from its utter loneliness, so impressed the imagination. The 

 shieling, a rude low-roofed erection of turf and stone, with a 

 door in the centre some five feet in height or so, but with no 

 window, rose on the grassy slope immediately in front of the 

 vast continuous rampart A slim pillar of smoke ascends 

 from the roof, in the calm, faint and blue within the shadow 

 of the precipice, but it caught the sun-light in its ascent, and 

 blushed, ere it melted into the ether, a ruddy brown. A 

 streamlet came pouring from above in a long white thread, 

 that maintained its continuity unbroken for at least two- 

 thirds of the way ; and then, untwisting into a shower of 

 detached drops, that pattered loud and vehemently in a rocky 

 recess, it again gathered itself up into a lively little stream, 

 and, sweeping past the shieling, expanded in front into a cir- 



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