NORTHERN SCOTLAND. 



347 



were likewise looked upon, for a considerable period, as one of the most northern 

 countries in Europe. Yet, as we have already seen [vide p. 301), to the Scandi- 

 navians they were Southern Islands. The Scotch, however, know the Hebrides 

 as Western Islands, and two amongst them are still more emphatically known as 

 Uist, or " West." The ancients called these islands Hebudcs, or £bi(des, wi-ongly 

 read Hebrides by a careless 



copyist. Another ancient name ^ig. 1 71. -The Western Islands. 



• J.-L J. !• r • /-I -1 xT_ ^ • Scale 1 : 2,225,000. 



is that or Inms Gail; that is, 

 "Isles of the Gaels." 



Several among these Western 

 Islands must be looked upon as 

 detached fragments of the main- 

 land, from which they became 

 separated through the formation 

 of a marine valley, and which 

 they resemble in geological struc- 

 ture. It was thus that Skye 

 became an island. Its eastern 

 promontory projects far into 

 Loch Alsh, and Kyle Rhea, the 

 narrow strait which connects that 

 loch with the Sound of Sleat, is 

 scarcely 500 yards wide. The 

 mountains of Skye, rising in 

 Scuir-an-Gillean, one of the 

 CuchuUins, to a height of 3,220 

 feet, run in the same direction 

 as the mountains of Inverness. 

 But whilst Eastern Skye is mainly 

 formed of metamorphosed Silu- 

 rian rocks, its larger western 

 portion is overspread with basalt. 

 Skye is one of the most pic- 

 turesque islands of the Hebrides, 

 with serrated ridges, sheets of 

 lava, cup-shaped caldrons, silvery 

 cataracts and mountain lakes, 

 and sp:ir caverns. One of the 



most remarkable curiosities of the island is the Quiraing (1,000 feet), near its 

 northern cape. It consists of a turf-clad platform of basalt, standing like a table 

 amongst gigantic columns of rock, for the most part inaccessible. 



The Western, or Outer Hebrides, are separated from the mainland and its 

 contiguous islands by the deep channel of the Minch, which sinks to a depth 

 of 150 fathoms. From their northern promontory, the Butt of Lewis, to Barra 



, -lb Miles. 



