From hence, proceeding along ihore, you arrive
at Fingal’s Cave, which runs into a rock in the direction
of N. E. by E. by the compafs.
Proceeding farther to the N. W . you meet with
the hitrheil range o f pillars, the magnificent appearance
of which is paft all defcription : here they are
bare to their very bafis ; and the ftratum below them
13 alfo vifible : in a iliort time it rifes many feet above
the water, and gives an opportunity o f examining its
quality. Its furface is rough, and has often large
lumps o f ftone ftkking to it, as if half immerfed ; itfelf,
when broken, is compofetl o f a thoufand heterogeneous
parts, which together have very much the
appearance of a lava : and the more fo, as many 01 the
lumps appear to be o f the very fame ftone of which
the pillars are formed : this whole ftratum lies m an
inclined pofition, dipping gradually towards the S. E.
Hereabouts is the fituation of the higheft pillars.
T h e ftratum above them is uniformly the fame, con-
fifting o f numberlefs fmall pillars, bending and inclining
in all direftions, fometimes fo irregularly, that the
ftones can only be faid to have an inclination to aflumc
a columnar form ; in others more regular, but never
breaking into, or difturbing thé ftratum o f large pillars,
whofe tops every where keep an upiform and
regular line. , , u j r
Proceeding now along ihore round the North end ot
the ifland, you arrive at Qua na fcarve, or The^ Corvo-
ranfs Cave : here the ftratum under the pillars is lifted
up very high ; the pillars above it are confiderably lefs
than thofe at the N. W. end of the ifland, but ftill very
confiderable. Beyond is a bay, which cuts deep into
the ifland, rendering it in that place not more than a
quarter o f a mile over. On the fides o f this bay, efpecially
.beyond a little valley, which almoft cuts the
ifland into two, are two ftages o f pillars, but fmall ;
however, having a ftratum between them exaftly^ the
fame as that above them, formed o f innumerable little
pillars, ihaken out o f their places, and leaning in all
direftions. .
Having
Having pafled this bay, the pillars totally ceafe *
the rock is o f a dark brown ftone, and no figns o f
regularity occur till you have pafled round the S. E.
end o f the ifland (a fpace almoft as large as that oc!
cupied by the pillars) which you meet again on the weft
u a ™ themfelves irregularly, as if
the flratum had an inclination to that form, and foon
arrive at the bending pillars where I began.
The ftone o f which the pillars are formed, is a
coarie kind o f bafaltes, very much refembling the
Giant s Caufeway in Ireland, though none o f them
are near fo neat as the fpecimens o f the latter, which
I have feen at the Britifh Mufeum, owing chiefly to
the colour, which in ours is a dirty brown, in the
Iriih a fine black ; indeed the whole produilion feems
very much to refemhle the Giant’s Caufeway, with
which I ihould willingly compare it, had I any account
o f the former before me.
T h u s much we have taken from Mr. Banks’s account
of the ifland o f Staffa— which Mr.Pennant affures
the public in a note to his T ou r in Scotland (p .‘ 269)
was copied from his Journal; concluding in thefe
w o rd s : “ F take the liberty o f faying (what by this
“ time that gentleman, meaning Mr. Banks, is w d l
** acquainted with) that Staffa is a genuine mafs o f
“ bafaltes, or Giant’s Caufeway; but in moft re-
“ fpefts fuperior to the Irifli in grandeur.”
We think Mr. Pennant might have fpared bis
reader this information, as Mr. Banks, in his account,
informs us, that it is a Giant’s Caufeway formed o f
coarie bafaltes.
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