322 TRANSACTIONS LIVERPOOL BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



north-west, into winch the valley called the Glen gradually 

 drops, it is girt around everywhere with magnificent rock 

 walls and precipices, the highest of which, that of 

 Coin) acher, drops nearly sheer into the sea from a height 

 of about 1,200 feet, but more generally the hills trend 

 away in very steep grassy slopes until the cliff line is 

 reached several hundred feet above the sea. 



Connacher, however, is merely one giant amongst many, 

 and the magnificent precipices of Soay and Boreray, some 

 of which are not much inferior to it in altitude, are 

 worthy rivals on the score of grandeur and picturesque - 

 ness. The latter two islands, indeed, are particularly 

 rocky and precipitous, and can only be landed on in one 

 or two places, and the ascent from the rocks to the grassy 

 tops of the islands involves a good bit of stiff climbing. 



The village is situated at the foot of a fine amphitheatre 

 of hills on the north and east sides of Village Bay, 

 where the land slopes gradually down to the sea, and is 

 the only habitable spot in the islands. The little houses 

 occupy a single curved line directly facing the sea, with 

 a narrow, rudely paved " street " in front, which is 

 separated by a low wall from the little patches of cultivated 

 ground which slope away down to the shore of the bay. 

 Here the land is terminated by a high bank and a rampart 

 of large, rounded boulders, the size of which testifies to the 

 violence of the winter storms, beyond which a small strip 

 of firm sand is left exposed at low water, the only patch 

 of sand round the whole of the islands. Above 1 the village 

 again the little crofts, with their patches of oats, potatoes, 

 grass, &c, struggle up the slope for a few hundred yards, 

 until they are separated from the general hillside by a 

 long wall built to keep out the cattle and sheep. The 

 hillsidies, though affording good pasturage, present from a 

 distance a decidedly bare appearance, which contrasts 



