GENERAL FEATURES OF THE COUNTRY. q 
them as an-ocean bed rising above the sea, when, according 
to the Hebrew cosmogony, God said, “ Let the waters of 
the earth be gathered together, and let the dry land 
appear.” And again, “Let the earth bring forth grass, 
the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit 
after his kind: and it was so.” 
There, were the bare, rounded granite rocks, without a 
blade of vegetation ; there, were others with only a lichen, 
or a.moss, or a grassy, or a flowery green spot. The 
former was on a dry rock, the latter on any crack or 
hollowed basin; and there, where there was a wider rent 
or a cup-like basin containing a handful of earth, a sapling 
tree ; and there, an island not much larger, covered with 
trees to the water’s edge, and there, larger islands, or the 
main land, with high rising hills clothed with wood and 
forests beyond. Again and again I felt that day as if I 
were alone with God, or rather with His works, as His 
work is described by Wisdom in the Book of Proverbs : 
‘When there were no depths, I was brought forth ; when 
there were no fountains abounding with water. Before 
the mountains were settled, before the hills was I brought 
forth: while as yet He had not made the earth, nor the fields, 
nor the highest part of the dust of the world. When He 
prepared the heavens: when He set a compass upon the 
fice of the depth : when He established the clouds above: 
when He strengthened the fountains of the deep: when 
He gave to the sea His decree, that the waters would not 
pass His commandment: when He appointed the founda- 
tions of the earth.’ 
The effect was heightened by the general absence of 
animal life, excepting at the towns and villages. Once or 
twice a cow was seen, once or twice a bird on the wing, 
and once a realisation of Kingsley’s picture of the sea-gull 
on the All-alone stone far out at sea! This was as we 
left the islands shortly after noon. There were four gulls 
struggling to maintain their footing on a little projecting 
rock far out at sea, washed over by a waye produced by 
our passing vessel. And here and there a solitary house, 
