26 
us with awe and a pleasing kind of as¬ 
tonishment. The prospect to me was 
quite novel. I had formerly been fami¬ 
liar only with champaign countries ; but 
I had no difficulty in declaring, that it 
was from some such scene as this only, 
that one could form an adequate concep¬ 
tion of nature, and of nature’s God. 
The face of the country exhibits a 
prospect of black craggy mountains and 
marshy plains, interspersed with some 
verdant spots which appear smooth and 
fertile. 
Neither tree nor shrub is to be seen, 
except the juniper and heath. 
Throughout the horrid wild no tree was seen, 
Earth clad in russet scorn’d the lively green. 
This want of trees and shrubs is the 
more remarkable, as in different parts of 
these Islands there are evident marks of 
their having been once a wooded coun¬ 
try. In the Island of Foula are often 
