318 



TUE BRITISH ISLES. 



Head, on the small island of Bernera, the development of this chain of gneissic 

 islands is so regular that in the eyes of the inhabitants of Scotland there exists but 

 one Long Island. This island, however, is made up of hundreds of fragments — 

 islands, islets, rocks— most of which are inhabited, though the population is 

 numerous only on T.ewis and Harris (which jointly form the northern and largest 

 island of the group), Xorth Uist, South Uist, Benbecula, and Barra, Each of 

 these fragments of Long Island has its hills, its Ben More, or " Jiig Mountain," 

 its lakes, peat bogs, lochs, and fishing ports. The traces of ancient glaciers are 



Fig. 172. — Lochs of Southern Lewis. 

 Scale 1 : 275,000. 



W.ofG. 6'40' 



e-QO' 



2 Miles. 



visible throughout, and several parts of Lewis have evidently been planed down 



by them into a succession of ridges.* 



Two submarine ridges lie outside the Western Hebrides, in the open Atlantic, 



but they emerge only at two places, viz. in the Flannan Islands, or " Seven 



Hunters," and, in the miniature archipelago of Hirt, or Hirst, usually named 



St. Kilda. The largest island of this group is still inhabited, notwithstanding its 



remote situation, the small extent of its cultivable soil, and the difhculty of access. 



This lonely island, 50 miles to the west of Lewis, is formed almost wholly of steep 



* The culminating; summits are— Bhein llhor (Ben More), in Lewis Forest, 1,750 feet; Clesham, 

 in Harris, 2,662 feet : Ben More, of South List, 2,0.38 feet. 



