402. Mr. Macgillivray’s Account of the Outer Hebrides. 
overrun by sand-drift, and all are bare of soil, and scantily clothed 
with vegetation. On the west coast of Vatersay are some singular 
caves or sinuosities formed in the rocks on the shore: the occur- 
rence of excavations similar to which, in other parts, will afford 
opportunities of speaking on their formation. 
The mainland of Barra, separated from Vatersay by a shallow 
and very narrow sound, comes next. It is about ten miles in length, 
of an irregular form, and presents the appearance of a group of 
hills of little elevation, the highest coming short of 2000 feet. In 
the whole of this group, we find gneiss of numerous varieties form- 
ing the fundamental rock. Masses and veins of granite, always 
large-grained, and veins of greenstone and basalt, are seen here 
and there intersecting it. The hills are rounded, tame, and uni- 
form ; their summits and sides partially covered with a thin layer 
of peaty soil; and the valleys formed between them narrow and 
scantily covered with earth. The western coast is sandy in most 
places, although seldom flat ; the eastern rocky and indented. The 
northern extremity, being for the most part covered with tolerable 
soil, presents a more verdant appearance than is usually met with 
in these islands. 
A small group of islands lying off the north-east coast of Barra, 
and the larger islands Fudia and Eriskay, are, according to Dr. 
MacCullech, of the same general nature. 
We now enter upon South Uist, an island about twenty miles 
in length by eight or ten in breadth. Its eastern coast is rugged 
and tortucus ; the western sandy and less indented. Two lochs 
or arms of the sea, Loch Boisdale and Loch Eynort, run from the 
east coast nearly across the island: The disposition of the ground 
is mountainous and rugged along the eastern half. The mountains 
are in general low, rounded in outline, and destitute of precipices 
or ravines. ‘Toward the north of Lech Eynort, they attain a con- 
siderable elevation, and one of them called Eachdla or the Great 
Hill of South Uist, being next to the Forest of Harris, the highest 
land in the Outer Hebrides, is supposed to be at least 3000 feet 
high. From this to the northern extremity the hills gradually 
lower ; and frem Loch Skiport to the north-west corner of the is- 
land, the ground is low, but irregular, and forming protuberances’ 
and hollows. The eastern slopes of the hills are rapid and irregu- 
lar, sometimes terminating in high rocky shores. The western de- 
clivities are also rugged, but less abrupt, and finally slope away 
into an irregular plain, which extends along the whole western 
coast, and varies in breadth from one to three miles. 
Separated from South Uist by a channel from two to four miles 
in breadth, including a long narrow island and several smaller 
rocks, the island of Benbecula comes next. It is of an eblong form 
lying across the general direction of the range, and is about eight 
miles by six or seven in its dimensions. This island is compara- 
tively low, and presents but a single eminence deserving the name 
of hill, Gneiss is still the general rock, and granite in masses and 
