224 ALCIDM. 



eye takes in the vast extent of country, nearly all in its original 

 wildness, will first be viewed, and the geological age of its various 

 portions speculated on, vaguely though it may be, from the form 

 of its hills, cHfFs, and mountains, and the changes will be noted 

 that are at the present time in progress. At one place he will 

 perceive that the land is gaining on the ocean, and at another, 

 yielding to its assaults. The leading features of the prospect, 

 viewed from the heights of the peninsula, are wild and fine 

 in the extreme, ranging from Malin Head, the most northern, 

 to Bloody Poreland Point, the north-western extremity of Ire- 

 land. Ofl^ the land towards the latter lie four small islands, 

 the one nearest to it displaying cultivation, the next, pasture 

 green as emerald, the third — and I believe fourth also — sterile 

 rock. Northward of them is the much larger island of Tory, 

 whose ancient history holds a prominent place in the archaeolo- 

 gical annals of Ireland. It is of most picturesque profile, with 

 its northern extremity rugged as the dilapidated ruins of a time- 

 worn castle. Inland, the mountain of Muckish appears a few 

 miles distant, and, more remote, the grand conical chain of moun- 

 tains, finer in form, than great in altitude, of which Errigal (2,460 

 feet in height) is the chief. The general features of the vegeta- 

 tion clothing the earth will be botanically viewed, with at the 

 same time its pictorial effects, from lofty mountains on whose 

 summits the true alpine plants find a home, to the low and barren 

 sand hills which skirt a large portion of the coast. The vast ex- 

 tent of sky, exhibiting perhaps at the same moment every form of 

 cloud to which science has applied a name, will next arrest atten- 

 tion ; so much being within view, that the spot occupied by the 

 spectator may remain all day in brilliant sunshine, although thun- 

 der-clouds, " dark as Erebus,'' appear at a distance, and peal 

 forth their sublime volleys, while both sheeted and forked light- 

 ning play in as fiery intensity as in the gloom of night amid their 

 intense blackness ; — a hue unseen elsewhere than in such scenes. 

 The illimitable ocean — "a world of wonder in itself" — will 

 then claim his admiration. On its distant waves a few " labouring 

 barks " will probably be seen, for on a vast expanse of water their 



