A SUMMER RAMBLE AMONG THE HEBRIDES. 219 



in the first instance, that he may be starved in the second. 

 The suffering paupers of this miserable island cottage would 

 have all their wants fully satisfied in the grave, long ere they 

 could establish at their own expense, at Edinburgh, their 

 claim to enter a court of law. I know not a fitter case for 

 the interposition of our lately formed " Scottish Association 

 for the Protection of the Poor" than that of this miserable 

 family ; and it is but one of many which the island of Eigg 

 will be found to furnish. 



After a week's weary waiting, settled weather came at last ; 

 and the morning of Tuesday rose bright and fair. My friend, 

 whose absence at the General Assembly had accumulated a 

 considerable amount of ministerial labour on his hands, had 

 to employ the day professionally ; and as John Stewart was 

 still engaged with his potato crop, I was necessitated to sally 

 out on my first geological excursion alone. In passing vessel- 

 wards, on the previous year, from the Ru Stoir to the farm- 

 house of Keill, along the escarpment under the cliffs, I had 

 examined the shores somewhat too cursorily during the one- 

 half of my journey, and the closing evening had prevented me 

 from exploring them during the other half at all ; and I now 

 set myself leisurely to retrace the way backwards from the 

 farm-house to the Stoir. I descended to the bottom of the 

 cliffs, along the pathway which runs between Keill and the 

 solitary midway shieling formerly described, and found that 

 the basaltic columns over head, which had seemed so pictu- 

 resque in the twilight, lost none of their beauty when viewed 

 by day. They occur in forms the most beautiful and fantastic ; 

 here grouped beside some blind opening in the precipice, like 

 pillars cut round the opening of a tomb, on some rock-front 

 in Petrsea ; there running in long colonnades, or rising into 

 tall porticoes ; yonder radiating in straight lines from some 

 common centre, resembling huge pieces of fan-work, or bend- 

 ing out in bold curves over some shaded chasm, like rows of 



