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prefent engages the attentioil o f the
curious in general, and all naturalifts
n particular*
ACCOUNT of the Ifland o f STAFFA,
C O M M U N I C A T E D
By J O S E P H B A N K S , E s q . .
T N the Sound o f Mull we came to anchor (Auguil
12, 1772) on the Morven fide, oppofite to a gentleman’s
houfe called Drumnen : the owner o f it, Mr.
Macleane, having found out who we were, very cordially
aiked us aihore ; we accepted his invitation,
and arrived at his houfe; where we met an Engliih
gentleman, Mr. Leach, who no fooner faw us, than
he told us, that about nine leagues from us was an
ifland, where he believed no one even in the highlands
had been, on which were pillars fike thofe o f the
Giant’s Caufeway : this was a great objeft to me who
had wiflied to have feen the caufeway itfelf, would
time have allowed : I therefore refolved to proceed
direftly, efpecially as it was juft in the way to the
Columb-kill; accordingly having put up two days
provifions, and my little tent, we put off in the boat
about one o’clock for our intended voyage, having
ordered the ihip to wait for us in Tobir-more, a very
fine harbour on the Mull fide.
A t nine o’clock, after a tedious paffage, having not
had a breath o f wind, we arrived, under the dircdiou
o f Mr. Macleane’s fon and Mr. Leach. It was too
dark to fee any thing, fo we carried our tent and
baggage near the only houfe upon the ifland, and began
to cook our flippers, in order to be prepared for the
carlieft dawn, to enjoy that which from the converfatioa
tion o f the gentlemen we had now raifed the higheil
expedlations of,
T h e impatience which every body felt to fee the
wonders we had heard fo largely defcribed, prevented
our morning’s reft; every one was up and in motion
before the break of day, and with the firft light arrived
at the S. W. part o f the ifland, the feat o f the
moil remarkable pillars ; where we no fooner arrived,
than we were ilruck with a fcene o f magnificence
which exceeded our expectations, though formed, as
we thought, upon the moft fanguine foundations : the
whole o f that end o f the ifland fupported by ranges
of natural pillars, moftly above fifty feet high, ftand-
lug in natural colonades, according as the bays or
points o f land fornied themfelves: upon a firm bails
of folid unformed rock/above thefe, the ftratum,
which reaches to the foil or furface of the ifland, var
ried in thicknefs, as the ifland itfelf formed into hills
or vallies; each hill, which hung over the columns
below, forming an ample pediment; fome o f thefe
above fixty feet in thicknefs, from the bafe to the
point, formed by the floping o f the hill on each fide,
almoft into the fhape o f thofe ufed in architecture.
We proceeded along the fhore, treading upon an J
other Giant’s Caufeway, every ftone being regularly
formed into a certain number o f fides and angles, till
in a fhort time we arrived at the mouth of a cave,
the moft magnificent, I fuppofe, that has ever beer»
defcribed by travellers.
T h e mind can hardly form an idea more magnificent
than fuch a fpace, fupported on each fide by
ranges o f colurnns ; and roofed by the bottoms of
thofe, which have been broken offin order to form i t ;
between the angles o f which a yellow ftalagmitic matter
has exuded, which ierves to define the angles pre«
ciiely, and at the fame time vary the colour with a
great deal o f elegance ; and tp render it ftill more
agreeable, the whole is lighted from without ; fo that
the fartheil extremity is very plainly feen from without,
and the air within being agitated by the flux and
X reflux
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