Mineralogy of Sky, 21 



possess a singularly striped appearance from the great variety of 

 colours In the several beds which compose them, of which twelve 

 or more may in different places be counted, all horizontal and 

 tolerably equal in their dimensions. The forms of these cliffs are 

 far too monotonous and too square to afford subjects for the pencil, 

 y every part being marked by a general similarity of character. Near 

 the entrance of Loch Bracadale some variety is presented by the 

 three detached and pyramidal rocks called Macleod's Maidens, the 

 highest of which appears to reach to about 200 feet. This fea- 

 ture, of detached pyramidal masses, is of frequent occurrence 

 on this coast, a remarkable perforated one being seen in Loch Bra- 

 cadale, and a similar one not far from Loch Eynort. They are, 

 like all other objects out of the ordinary course of nature, rather 

 singular than picturesque : the strange and the bizarre are seldom 

 legitimate subjects for painting, and rarely please long, after the 

 first wonder has subsided. 



In Loch Bracadale some caves are found in the rocks, which have 

 no particular claims on notice either from their beauty, their mag- 

 nitude, or their singularity. Similar caves are of frequent occur- 

 rence between Talisker and Loch Brittle, the low projecting rocks 

 being also often perforated by arches which are sometimes exceed- 

 ingly complicated and remarkable. With the exception of some 

 projecting points of high rock the shores of Loch Bracadale are 

 flat, and this tract is among the most fertile of Sky. At its sou- 

 thern extremity the cliffs are perfectly vertical, and without that 

 slope at the foot, which so commonly accompanies the high cliffs 

 of trap, and which are so conspicuous in particular on the eastern 

 6ide of the island. The retired and green valley of Talisker opens 

 to the sea by a low beach, on which the natural embankment 

 already mentioned has been formed by the western swell. Here 



