292 HEBR 
iikewife fait mutton in the hide, and export it in boats 
or barklings to different parts of the main-land. Cod, 
ling, mackarel, whiting, haddock, and foies, are here 
caught in abundance, together with a fmall red cod, of 
a very delicate flavour. But the greateft treafure the 
ocean pours forth is the prodigious quantity of herrings, 
which, at one feafpn of the year, fwarm in all the creeks 
and bays along the fhores of the Hebrides. Thefe are 
counted the largeft, fatteft, and fined, herrings caught in 
ai;y part of the northern feas. This fiffiery employs a 
great number of people, and brings a confiderable ad¬ 
vantage to the kingdom. 
The commerce of thefe iflands might eafily be ex¬ 
tended, fo as to render them a ftaple of trade, and an 
excellent nurfery for feamen. They are furniflied with 
an infinite number of bays, creeks, and harbours, for the 
convenience of navigation ; the inhabitants are nume¬ 
rous, and formed by nature for a maritime life ; and fuch 
is the nautical fituation, that the navigator is immedi¬ 
ately in the open fea, and almoft in the neighbourhood 
of Denmark, Sweden, Hamburgh, Holland ; nay, with 
a favourable wind, he can reach the coafts of France 
and Spain in a week’s failing; or if bound for America, 
or any part of the known globe, he is at once difencum- 
bered of the land, and profecutes his voyage through 
the open fea without obftruftion or difficulty. 
Of the beautiful and fublime in nature ;—of fcenes at 
once grand, magnificent, and awful;—perhaps no part of 
the univerfe affords more ftriking examples than the He¬ 
brides. They have been in part defcribed by the able 
writers above-mentioned ; but by none with more happy 
or elevated fentiments than Mrs. Murray, in her excur- 
fion to Staffa ; the notices of the Boat-cave, Fingal’s 
cave, the Clam, and the fu.perb aflemblage of bafaltic 
pillars on that ifland, we ffiall give in her own words : 
“ On the north-weft point, riles to a great height a 
fmall promontory almoft perpendicular from the fea to 
its fummit. The bafe of this promontory is rough and 
irregular for perhaps more than half its height, and, where 
the uneven rock ends, the moft beautiful perfedt uni¬ 
form pillars reft upon it, in a convex femi-circle; and, 
were it not for their ftupendous appearance, it might be 
thought that the fineft ftatuary ever exifting had ftretch- 
ed his chifel powers beyond human art in forming them. 
Advancing from this beautiful convex circle of pillars, 
I obferved creeks and caves, and perpendicular rocks of 
great variety ; but, when I came within fight of the very 
regular pillars and eletated dome over the great caves, 
I was in an extafy. 
‘^Conceive, if you can, an infinity of fmall pillars 
thrown together in every direction at a very confidera¬ 
ble height from the eye, bearing the relemblance of ar¬ 
chitecture executed in the moft mafterly ftyle, and high¬ 
ly beautified by various tints made by time and wea¬ 
ther, compofing an irregular and continued fapade to 
magnificent domes, from which defcend perpendicular, 
compadt, fmooth, prifmatic pillars, fomerelting (parti¬ 
cularly thofe at the Boat-cave, and on the weft fide of 
Fingal’s cave) on rough irregular found maffes of bafal- 
tes waflied by the fea ; others mortifed in the angles 
of ftumps of pillars once entire, the uppermoft joints of 
which have feparatedfrom the main mats of pillars form¬ 
ing the ifland. 
“It is faid that the Boat-cave is much larger'than 
that of Fingal ; but it is very little known, owing to 
ideal or real danger in going into it. The mouth of it 
is far from ftriking or beautiful; its form fomewhat re¬ 
fembling a barn-door; but the dome or outfide roof reft- 
ing on the perpendicular prifms, with the fynimetry of 
the pillars ranged in a compaCt form all along that part 
of Staffa, are beyond all defcription beautiful, even more 
fo, if polfible, than the outward parts of Fingal’s cave ; 
but the ftriking coup-d’ceil of them is loft to all who 
approach Staffa by the fouth-eaft fide of it; and it is not 
feen at all if the boatmen do not choofe to be at the trou- 
1 D E S. 
ble of rowing to the weft. I was almoft overcome with 
aftoniffiment and delight, on viewing the partsaround the 
outfide of the Boat-Cave; and I remained infilent amaze¬ 
ment at every fucceeding objeCt that met my eye, till I 
came to the entrance into Fingal’s cave, which I did not 
perceive till I was nearly clofe to it,occafioned by around 
projection of moft beautiful compaCt prifms defcending 
from the magnificent crown or dome of fmall pillars in 
every direction to a folid rough bafe of bafaltes. The 
romantic grandeur of the fcene is beyond all defcription. 
“When I came to what is called the Clam-Jhell cave, I 
was aftoniffied by other pillars, more extraordinary, if 
polfible, in point of natural production, than any I had 
feen before. They are the large bending pillars. I 
crofted the creek at the mouth of the cave, and fat down 
on huge convex prifms lying horizontally in a compaCt 
mafs, and running a vaft length into the fea. Oppofite 
to where I fat, huge prifms curve in the arch of a circle 
down the fide of the ifland, from the fummit to the 
ftumps near the mouth of the Clam-fhell cave, forming 
a figure fomething refembling the ribbed infide of a fcol- 
lop-fhell, which I imagine has given the cave its name. 
Thefe concave pillars exhibit at their angles, joints ex¬ 
actly fimilar to the perpendicular ones at Fingal’s cave, 
and form a fcene more fublime than 1 am able to de- 
fcribe. I advanced over the horizontal pillars, which 
lay like numerous keels of huge men of war, petrified in 
one mafs, and jointed like mafonry. By fcrambling over 
fome horizontal, fome bending, and fome upright, pil¬ 
lars, I at length gained the plain at the fummit of the 
ifland. This plain is about one mile by three quarters, 
having a thin ftrata of foil over the great caves, but on 
the north fide of the ifland the pafture is admirable for 
feeding of cattle and ffieep. The prefent laird of thefe 
ifles is Ranald M‘Donald, efq. of the houfe of Boifdale, 
whole mind and tafte are fully capable of appreciating 
the jewel in his poffeflion, the like of which, in all pro¬ 
bability, cannot be found on the face of the terreftrial 
globe. What a pleafure then muft it be, to be laird of 
Staffa ? 
“ Staffa rifes perpendicularly from the fea in every 
part except at one creek, running fome way into the 
ifland, on the eaft fide, where few vifitors reach ; it is 
there they land what cattle and ffieep are grazed on the 
fummit, and it is the moft flieltered fpot around the 
ifland. From the top of Fingal’s cave, I walked on the 
weft .fide as near the edge of the precipices as I poflibly 
could, and crofted the hollow from the cattle landing- 
place ; and, having gained the femicircular promontory 
above-mentioned, I found ntyfelf on the fummit of thofe 
beautiful pillars. As that point is the higheft ground 
in Staffa, it affords a panorama view of the furrounding 
iflands, and an expanfe of the Atlantic towards Ameri¬ 
ca, as far as the eye can reach.” 
The ifland of Hyona, or Iona, has been celebrated by 
many authors as the venerable and primitive feat of 
Scottiffi literature and religion, founded by St. Colum. 
ba, in the fixth century. The ruins of the facred edi¬ 
fices, which appear to have been conftrudted of red gra¬ 
nite, refembling the Egyptian, produced the following 
impreflive obfervation from Dr. Johnfon: “We were 
now treading that illuftrious ifland, which was once the 
luminary of the Caledonian regions, whence favageclans 
and roving barbarians derived the benefit of knowledge 
and the blelfings of religion. * To abftratft the mind from 
all local emotion would be impoffible, if it were endea¬ 
voured, and would b,e fooliffi if it were polfible. What¬ 
ever withdraws us from the power of our lenfes ; what¬ 
ever makes the paft, the diftant, or the future, predomi¬ 
nate over the prelent; advancesus in the dignity of think¬ 
ing beings. Far from me and my friends be fuch frigid 
philofophy as may conduct us indifferent and unmoved 
over any ground which has been dignified by wifdom, 
bravery, or virtue. That man is little to be envied, 
whole patriotifni would not gain force upon the plain of 
4 Marathon, 
