"The cave runs into the rock in the direction of north east by east by the compass. Proceeding farther to the north west, you meet with the highest ranges of pillars, the magnificent appearance of which is past all description. Here they are bare to their very basis, and the stratum below them is also visible. In a short time it rises many feet above the water, and gives an opportunity of examining its quality. Its surface is rough and has often large lumps of stone sticking in it, as if half immersed. Itself, when broken, is composed of a thousand heterogeneous parts, which altogether have very much the appearance of a lava, and the more so as many of the lumps appear to be of the very same stone of which the pillars are formed. The whole stratum lies in an inclined position, dipping gradually towards the south east.” The cave of Fingal is undoubtedly one of the most magnificent objects which the eye can behold; consisting, as it does, of a massy roof of enormous weight resting on the tops of regular columns. The roof consists of fragments of pillars, the shafts of which have been washed away by the ocean. The fragments are cemented by calcareous matter; which, when contrasted with the dark purple hexagons formed by the ends of the pillars, gives the whole the appearance of a Mosaic work. Between the upright pillars is often found a cement, cement, generally of a beautiful white colour, interspersed with rhomboidal and prismatic crystals, which are sometimes tinged with green. This substance is in general calcareous spar (crystallized carbonate of lime.) In some instances, however, the space is filled up with infiltrations of beautiful white granite. In the very midst of the basaltic pillars, when broken, are to be found pieces of radiated zeolite. At the farther extremity of the cave of Fingal is a small cave, which, from certain passages sends forth an agreeable noise; hence it has received the name of an-ua-bhinn, or the "melodious cave." Dr Uno Van Troil, the learned bishop of Linakaeping, who visited Staffa along with Sir Joseph Banks, in his letters on Iceland, gives the following animated account of this cave: "How magnificent are the remains we have of the porticos of the ancients! and with what admiration do we behold the colonnades which adorn the principal buildings of our times: And yet every one who compares them with Fingal's cave, formed by nature, in the island of Staffa, must readily acknowledge that this piece of nature's architecture far surpasses every thing that invention, luxury, and taste, ever produced among the Greeks." "This superb monument," says M. de St. Fond, " of a grand subterraneous combustion, the date of which has been lost in the lapse of ages, presents an appearance of order and regularity so wonderful, that it is difficult for the coldest observer, and one the least sensible to the phenomena which relate to the convulsions of the globe, not to be singularly astonished by this prodigy, which may be considered as a sort of natural palace. I (adds he) have seen many ancient volcanos, and I have given descriptions of several superb basaltic causeways and delightful caverns in the midst of lavas, but I have never found any thing which comes near to this, or can bear any comparison with it, for the admirable regularity of the columns, the height of the arch, the situation, the form, the elegance of this production of nature, or its resemblance to the master-pieces of art, though this has had no share in its construction. It is therefore not at all surprizing that tradition should have made it the abode of a hero." Basaltes have been carefully analized, and found to contain nearly the same component parts with lava; and therefore many philosophers have concluded that these are lava immersed in water, and cooled and crystalized by that medium. Bergmann gives the analysis of basalt and lava as follows, viz. We take leave of this little island by recommending to all travellers who visit the western shores of Argyleshire, to devote three days time to seeing it and Iona The best plan is to take a boat from Oban to the neighbourhood of Aross, and thence to go by land to Laggan-ulva, where a boat may be procured for a moderate fare for a whole day's voyage to Staffa and Icolmkill. If the wind is southerly, or south-west, and blowing fresh, it is in vain to attempt the voyage, but travellers may safely trust to the judgment and fidelity of the native boatmen, who are always ready to serve strangers to the utmost of their ability. Such as have letters of recommendation to Mr Macdonald of Staffa, are sure of meeting with kindness and hospitality, as well as of being highly gratified by the conversation of an accomplished and enlightened gentleman. THIS beautiful and fertile island, lying due west of Mull, and 16 miles from Rû-threishinish there, is entirely omitted by Dean Monroe in his description of the Hebrides, a circumstance altogether unaccountable, as it belonged of old to Icolmkill, and as the learned and venerable Dean is very particular in pointing out the possessions of the church in other districts of those isles. Buchanan mentions Tyree as "an island eight miles <«<long and three broad, the most fertile of all the wes"tern isles, abounding in corn, cattle, fish, and wild "fowls" and Martin, in his usual strange way, states the length at four miles from south-east to north-west, and gives such an account of the part of it commonly called reef, as makes the reader doubt of his having at all seen the island. Tyree, Tyree, i. e. Tir-li, or land of Ii, so called from its having belonged to the monastery of Ii or Iona, is 10 miles long, and varies in breadth from seven miles to one, the average being 23, and the superficial contents 24 square miles, or about 12,000 Scotch acres. Of these 700 are fresh water lakes and morasses. It stretches, not as Martin says from south-east to north-west, but directly the opposite way, from south-west to northeast, and is so much indented by the sea that its coast, following the sea mark, is about 55 miles long. It has a large proportion of arable land, amounting to about 5000 acres, and maintains the largest population of all the Hebrides in proportion to its surface. The number of souls in 1808 was 3200. The quantity of live stock is almost incredible, especially when we consider the bad management of the pasture and meadow lands. The number of horses was 1500, of cows 2000, of hogs 12 or 1300; of sheep, indefinite, but perhaps 800; and of geese, ducks, and poultry, greater than was found on double the space of any other island in those parts. In consequence of the lately adopted arrangement of giving separate possessions to the tenants who formerly held their lands in townships and runrig, the island is beginning to improve, and some sort of order begins to appear in its agricultural operations. Much, however, remains to be done. Inclosures, drains, and adequate march dykes, are much wanted. Green crops, which cannot be cultivated without good inclosures and competent fences, must be generally adopted before the island can resume the fertility of which bountiful nature has made it susceptible, and which a constant course |