502 Dr. Mac Culloch on Staffa. 



sides by perpendicular clifFs, varying in altitude and broken into 

 numerous recesses and promontories. 



It is intersected by one deep cut, scarcely to be called a valley, 

 which divides the higher and more celebrated columnar part from 

 the remainder of the island. At the highest tides this more re- 

 markably columnar part which forms its southwestern side, appears 

 to terminate almost abruptly in the water, but the retiring tide 

 shows a causeway of broken columns forming a sort of beach at its 

 foot. Round the other sides of the island there is also a beach of 

 varying breadth, consisting of detached fragments, and of rocks 

 jutting out into the sea in many irregular directions. This beach, 

 when the weather is perfectly calm, and the swell off the shore, 

 will, under due precautions, afford landing in various places, but it^ 

 is on the eastern side that the most numerous landing places occur. 

 Various narrow creeks sheltered by the island itself from the predo- 

 minant western swell, admit of easy access in moderate weather, 

 provided the wind is in any direction from SW. to NW, and for 

 the encouragement of the mineralogist, who may be terrified at the 

 exaggerated reports of this difficulty, I can assure him that I have 

 landed on Staffa when the vessels that navigate this sea have had 

 their sails reefed, and the boatmen of lona and Ulva have called it 

 impracticable. The love of the marvellous has conferred on Staffa 

 a terrific reputation, which a greater resort has discovered to be 

 somewhat akin to that of Scylla and Charybdis. 



It is easy to perceive from the southward, that with this flat dis- 

 position of its surface, and notwithstanding its irregularities, Staffa 

 possesses a gentle inclination towards the N.E. although no oppor- 

 tunity is afforded for ascertaining the precise dip. It is not of im- 

 portance to ascertain it, nor can it amount to more than 5 or 6 deg. 

 of variation from the horizontal plane. 



