A SUMMER RAMBLE AMONG THE HEBRIDES. 185 



rough contorted crags, worn by the surf into deep ruts and 

 uneven ridges, gnarled protuberances, and crater-like hollows. 

 The fossiliferous beds are still very numerous, and largely 

 charged with remains. We see dermal bones, spines, scales, 

 and jaws, projecting in high relief from the sea-worn surface 

 of the ledges below, and from the weather-worn faces of the 

 precipices above ; for an uneven wall of crags, some thirty or 

 forty feet high, now runs along the shore. We have reached 

 what seems a large mole, that, sloping downwards athwart 

 the beach from the precipices, like a huge boat-pier, runs far 

 into the surf. We find it composed of a siliceous bed, so in- 

 tensely compact and hard, that it has preserved its proportions 

 entire, while every other rock has worn from around it. For 

 century after century have the storms of the fierce north-west 

 sent their long ocean-nursed waves to dash against it in foam ; 

 for century after century have the never-ceasing currents of 

 the Pentland chafed against its steep sides, or eddied over its 

 rough crest ; and yet still does it remain unwasted and un- 

 worn, its abrupt wall retaining all its former steepness, and 

 every angular jutting all the original sharpness of edge. As 

 we advance the scenery becomes wilder and more broken : 

 here an irregular wall of rock projects from the crags towards 

 the sea ; there a dock-like hollow, in which the water gleams 

 green, intrudes from the sea upon the crags : we pass a deep 

 lime-encrusted cave, with which tradition associates some wild 

 legends, and which, from the supposed resemblance of the 

 hanging stalactites to the entrails of a large animal wounded 

 in the chase, bears the name of Pudding-Gno ; and then, turn- 

 ing an angle of the coast, we enter a solitary bay, that pre- 

 sents at its upper extremity a flat expanse of sand. Our walk 

 is still over sepulchres charged with the remains of the long- 

 departed. Scales of Holoptychius abound, scattered like coin 

 over the surface of the ledges. It would seem to borrow 

 from Mr Dick as if some old lord of the treasury, who 



