RAMBLES OF A GEOLOGIST. 477 



the general many-pointed glitter by which the blue gauze-like 

 mist was bespangled, the light of the great carbuncle for which 

 the Ward Hill has long been famous, that wondrous gem, 

 according to Sir "Walter, " that, though it gleams ruddy as a 

 furnace to them that view it from beneath, ever becomes in- 

 visible to him whose daring foot scales the precipices whence 

 it darts its splendour." The Hill of Hoy is, however, not 

 the only one in the kingdom that, according to tradition, bears 

 a jewel in its forehead. The " great diamond" of the Northern 

 Sutor was at one time scarce less famous than the carbuncle 

 of the Ward Hill. I have been oftener than once interro- 

 gated on the western coast of Scotland regarding the " dia- 

 mond rock of Gromarty ;" and have been told by an old cam- 

 paigner who fought under Abercrombie, that he has listened 

 to the familiar story of its diamond amid the sand wastes of 

 Egypt. But the diamond has long since disappeared ; and 

 we now see only the rock. Unlike the carbuncle of Hoy, 

 it was never seen by day ; though often, says the legend, the 

 benighted boatman has gazed, from amid the darkness, as he 

 came rowing along the shore, on its clear beacon-like flame, 

 which, streaming from the precipice, threw a fiery strip across 

 the water ; and often have the mariners of other countries 

 inquired whether the light which they saw so high among 

 the cliffs, right over their mast, did not proceed from the 

 shrine of some saint or the cell of some hermit At length 

 an ingenious ship-captain, determined on marking its place, 

 brought with him from England a few balls of chalk, and 

 took aim at it in the night-time with one of his great guns. 

 Ere he had fired, however, it vanished, as if suddenly with- 

 drawn by some guardian hand ; and its place in the rock front 

 has ever since remained as undistinguishable, whether by night 

 or by day, as the scaurs and clefts around it. The marvels 

 of the present time abide examination more patiently. It 

 seems difficult enough to conceive, for instance, that the upper 



