P u m i c e s .
Straid-a-mhargai, or market-ftreet: within this are two rude ereft
columns, about fix feet high, and nine and a half in girth : behind
thefe a peat-mofs : on one fide a range of low hills, at whofe
neareft extremity is an entrenchment called Dun-valire. On the
Weftern fide o f the morafs is an oblong infulated hill, on whofe
fummit, the country-people fay, there had been feven towers:
I coyld only perceive three or four excavations, o f no certain
form, and a dike round them.
In moft parts of the hill are dug up great quantities of different
forts of pumices, or fcoria, o f different kinds : o f them one is the
pumex cinerarias ; the other the P . molaris o f Linnaeus; the laft very
much refembling fome that Mr. Banks favored me with .from the
iiland o f Iceland. The hill is doubtlefs the work o f a vulcano, of
which this is not the only veftige in Nortb-Britain.
Ride on a fine road to Ard-muchnage, the feat of the late Sir Duncan
Campbel; a very handfome houfe, and well finilhed. Sir Duncan, at
the age of forty began to plant, and lived to fee the extenfive plantations
in his garden, and on the pi&urefque hills round his lands
arrive to perfedtion. The country about rifes into a lofty but
narrow eminence, now finely wooded, extending in a Curvature,
forming one fide of an enchanting bay; the other impending over
the fea.
On my return obferve, near the hill of the feven towers, a
Druidical circle, formed of round ftones placed clofe together. The
area is twenty-fix feet in diameter; and about ten feet diftant from the
outfide is an eredt pillar feven feet high. ~ A t fueh ftones as thefe,
my learned friend, the late Dr. William Borlafe *, remarks, might
* Antij. Carnival
have
have ftood the officers of the high prieft, to command filence among
the people; or fome inferior perfon, verfed in the ceremonies, to
obferve that none were omitted, by warning the officiating prieft, in
cafe any efcaped his memory.
Return, and lie on board.
Weigh anchor at fix o’clock in the morning. Sail by the back A u g u s t i i .
of Loch-nel hill, forming a moft beautiful crefcent, partly culti-,
vated, partly covered with wood to the fummit. Land near the
North end of the ifle of
L I s M O R E ,
which is about nine miles long, one and a half broad, and contains
about fifteen hundred inhabitants *. It derives its name from Lios-
mor, or the great garden : but tradition fays it was originally a great
deer foreft ; and, as a proof, multitudes of ftag horns o f uncommon
fizes are perpetually dug up in the moffes. A t prefent
there is fcarce any wood ; but the leffer vegetables grow with
uncommon vigour. The chief produce o f the land is bear and
oats. The firft is raifed in great quantity, but abufed by being
difti'lled into whifky. The crops o f oats are generally applied
to the payment of rent; fo that the inhabitants are obliged for
their fubfiftence annually to import much meal.
The ground has in moft parts the appearance o f great fertility,
but is extremely ill-managed, and much impoverilhed by
excefs of tillage, and negleft o f manure. Pit and rock marie are
* Or between 900 and 1000 examinable perfons.
found