GENERAL FEATURES OF THE COUNTRY. ? 



them as an ocean bed rising above the sea, when, according 

 to the Hebrew cosmogony, God said, " Let the waters of 

 the earth be gathered together, and let the dry land 

 appear." And again, " Let the earth bring forth grass, 

 the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit 

 after his kind : and it was so." 



There, were the bare, rounded granite rocks, without a 

 blade of vegetation ; there, were others with only a lichen, 

 or a moss, or a grassy, or a flowery green spot. The 

 former was on a dry rock, the latter on any crack or 

 hollowed basin ; and there, where there was a wider rent 

 or a cup-like basin containing a handful of earth, a sapling 

 tree ; and there, an island not much larger, covered with 

 trees to the water's edge, and there, larger islands, or the 

 main land, with high rising hills clothed with wood and 

 forests beyond. Again and again I felt that day as if I 

 were alone with God, or rather with His works, as His 

 work is described by Wisdom in the Book of Proverbs : 

 ' When there were no depths, I was brought forth ; when 

 there were no fountains abounding with water. Before 

 the mountains were settled, before the hills was I brought 

 forth: while as yet He had not made the earth, nor the fields, 

 nor the highest part of the dust of the world. When He 

 prepared the heavens : when He set a compass upon the 

 f ice of the depth : when He established the clouds above : 

 when He strengthened the fountains of the deep : when 

 He gave to the sea His decree, that the waters would not 

 pass His commandment ; when He appointed the founda- 

 tions of the earth/ 



The effect was heightened by the general absence of 

 animal life, excepting at the towns and villages. Once or 

 twice a cow was seen, once or twice a bird on the wing, 

 and once a realisation of Kingsley's picture of the sea-gull 

 on the All-alone stone far out at sea ! This was as we 

 left the islands shortly after* noon. There were four gulls 

 struggling to maintain their footing on a little projecting 

 rock far out at sea, washed over by a wave produced by 

 our passing vessel. Arid here and there a solitary hou.sc, 



