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reflux of the tides, Is perfeflly dry and wholefom«,
free entirely from the damp vapours with which natural
caverns in general abound.
We aflced the name o f i t ; faid our guide, T h e eavc
o f Fiuhn : what is Fiuhn ? faid we. Fiuhn Mac
Coul, whom the tranflator o f Oilian’s works has
called Fingal. How fortunate that in this cave we
fliould meet with the remembrance o f that chief,
whofe exiftence, as well as that o f the whole epic
poem, is. almofl: doubted in England !
Enough for the beauties o f Staffa ; I ihall now
proceed to defcribe it and its produilions more philofophically.
n n r
T h e little iiland o f Staffii lies on the weft coaft of
Mull, about three leagues N. E. from Jona, or the
Columb K i l l : its greateft length is about an Englifli
mile, and its breadth about half a one. On the weft
fide of the ifland is a fmall bay, where boats generally
land : a little to the fouthward o f which the firft appearance
of pillars are to be obferved ; they are fmall,
and inftead o f being placed upright, lie down on their
fides, each forming a fegment of a circle : from thence
you pafs a fmall cave, above which,^ the pillars ^now
g r o w n a little larger, are inclining in all directions:
in one place in particular a fmall mafs o f them very
much referable the ribs of a fhip : from hence having
pafled the cave, which if it is not low water, you muft
do in a boat, you come to the firil ranges o f pillars,
which are ftill not above half as large as thofe a little
beyond. Over againft this place is a fmall ifland,
called in Erfe Boo-Jha-la, feparated from the main by
a channel not many fathoms wide : this whole ifland
is compofed o f pillars without any flratum above
them ; they are flill fmall, but by much the neateft
formed of any about the place.
T h e firft divifion o f the iiland, for at high water
it is divided into two, make? a kind o f a cone, the
pillars converging together towards the centre: on
the other, they are in general laid down flat j and in
she front next to the main, you fee how beautifully
they
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they are packed together; their ends coming out fquaríí
with the bank which they form : all thefe have their
tranfverfe fecftions exadl, and their furfaces fmooth,
which is by no means the cafe with the large ones,
which are cracked in all direftions. I much queftlon,
however, i f any one o f this whole ifland o f Boo-fha-Ia
is two feet in diameter.
T h e main ifland oppoflte to 600 -íha-lá, ánd farther
towards the N. W. is fupported by ranges o f pillars
pretty ereil, and though not tall (as they are not uncovered
to the bafe) o f large diameters ; and at their
feet is an irregular pavement, made by the upper fldes
of fuch as have been broken off, which extends as fat
under water as the eye can reach. Here the forms o f
the pillars are apparent; thefe are o f three, four, fivé
íix, and feven fides; but the numbers o f five and fix
are much the moft prevalent. T h e largeft I raeafured
was of feven ; it was four feet five inches in diameter*.
T h e furfaces o f the large pillars in general are rough
and uneven, full o f cracks in all direflions; the tranfverfe
figures in the upright ones never fail to run hi
their true directions : the furfaces upon which we
walked were often flat, having neither concavity nor
convexity; the larger number however were concave;
though fome were very evidently convex : in fome.
places the interftices within the perpendicular figures
Were filled up with a yellow fpa r; in one place a veih
paffed in among the mafs o f pillars, carrying here and
there fmall threads o f fpar. Though they were broken,
and cracked through and through in all direftions, yet
their perpendicular figures might eafily be traced:
from whence it is eafy to infer, that whatever the accident
might have been that caufed the diflocation, It
happened after the formation o f the pillars.
* A s M r . Banks’s meafurement and dimenfions o f thefe
and other remarkable pillars, and o f Fingal’ s Cave, agree
even to a fn g le figure with thoie given b y our accurate
A u tho r in pages 277, 27S, 279, 2S1, 2S2, o f this work, the
repetition o f them would have been ufelefs; for which reafon
they are omitted.
T 2 Jrom
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