Mr. Macgillivray’s Account of the Outer Hebrides. 405 
Pabbay, Ensay, and Kelligray, and a multitude of smaller islands 
and rocks. These are all of the gneiss formation. The island 
of Ensay is remarkable for the numberless strata, varying from 
half an inch to a few feet, which it exhibits on its western shores, 
nearly in a vertical position. 
We have now reached the northernmost of the large islands, 
which, howéver, is equal in size to all the others together. It pre- 
sents five very natural divisions, of which the first is an oblong 
tract, about twelve miles long, extending from the Sound of Har- 
ris to Tarbert. In all parts of the Outer Hebrides, the reck is so 
extensively exposed, that the geologist can pursue his investigations 
in the most satisfactory manner ; and here, where nearly one-half 
of the surface is bare rock, any difficulties that may present them- 
selves must have reference to other faculties than that of vision. 
The eastern coast line of this portion is, as usual, tortuous and si- 
nuous ; the western less indented, being formed of sand, with 
tracts of rock intervening. The mountains, which entirely occupy 
the ground, form an irregular elongated group, of which the highest, 
Ronaval, Ben-Capval, and Ben-Loskentir, may be about 2500 feet 
high. 
The mountains of the southern portion, as far as Loch Langavat, 
consist of gneiss, of numberless varieties, generally highly inclined, 
but following various directions. They are all more or less rounded 
in outline. Bencapval, forming a peninsular promontory on the 
west coast, and Rouaval, situated near the southern corner, are 
distinguished from the others ; the former by its superior verdure 
and gracefulness of outline ; the latter by its greater sterility and 
the existence of a deep hollow upon it, resembling in form the cra~ 
ter of a volcano. Ronaval presents some geological phenomena 
worthy of notice. Although the base and sides are generally of 
gneiss, distinctly laminar, the parts around the corry, or hollow 
above mentioned, consist of a granular compound of felspar and 
hornblende, containing garnets, often of large size, which one could 
hardly venture to denominate gneiss. The southern and western 
sides are intersected by large granitic veins. These veins are re- 
markable for the large size of the concretions of which they are 
composed, plates of mica a foot in diameter sometimes occurring, 
and the felspar being of equal size. In one of these veins is a gar- 
net four inches in diameter, imbedded in quartz, among others of 
inferior size. Nodules, of a spherical form, of titanitic iron ore, 
from six inches in diameter downwards, are abundant in one of 
these veins. A large portion of the western side of the mountain 
consists of a rock in which garnet in small grains forms the predo- 
minating ingredient. 
From the base of this mountain, there runs along the eastern 
side of the Glen of Rodell, to the length of nearly a mile, an irre- 
cular elongated mass of limestone, which can hardly be cailed a 
bed, as it bears a. much greater resemblance in form to the granite 
veins. Near the village of Redell I observed a distinct vein of the 
