224 
ALCIDiE. 
eve 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, cliffs, 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 Foreland Point, the north-western extremity of Ire- 
land. Off 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 
