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YON TROIL’S LETTERS ON ICELAND. 706
days’ provifions, and my little tent, we put off in the boat about one o’clock for our in-
tended voyage, having ordered the fhip to wait for us in ‘Tobir-more, a very fine har-
bour on the Mull fide.
At nine o’clock, aftera tedious paflage, having had nota breath of wind, we arrived,
under the direction of Mr. Maclean’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 be-
gan to cook our fuppers, in order to be prepared for the earlieft dawn, to enjoy that
which from the converfation of the gentlemen we had now raifed the higheft expetta-
tions of.
The impatience which every body felt to fee the wonders we had heard fo largely de-
fcribed, prevented our morning’s re{t; every one was up and in motion before the
break of day, and with the firft light arrived at the S. W. part of the ifland, the feat
of the moft remarkable pillars ; where we no fooner arrived, than we were ftruck with
a fcene of magnificence which exceeded our expectations, though formed, as we
thought, upon the moft fanguine foundations : the whole of that end of the ifland fup-
ported by ranges of natural pillars, moftly above fifty feet high, ftanding in natural colon-
nades, according as the bays or points of land formed themfelves: upon a firm bafis of
folid unformed rock, above thefe, the ftratum, which reaches to the foil or furface of the
ifland, varied in thicknefs, as the ifland itfelf formed into hills or vallies ; each hill,
which hung over the columns below, forming an ample pediment; fome of thefe
above fixty feet in thicknefs, from the bafe to the point, formed by the floping of the
hill on each fide, almoft into the fhape of thofe ufed in architecture.
We proceeded along the fhore, treading upon another Giant’s Caufeway, every
ftone being regularly formed into a certain number of fides and angles, till in a fhort
time we arrived at the mouth of a cave, the moft magnificent, I {uppofe, that has ever
been defcribed by travellers.
The mind can hardly form an idea more magnificent than fuch a {pace, fupported on
each fide by ranges of columns ; and roofed by the bottoms of thofe, which have beep
broke off in order to form it ; between the angles of which a yellow ftalagmitic matter has
exuded, which ferve to define the angles precifely, and at the fame time vary the colour
with a great deal of elegance; and to renderit {till more agreeable, the whole is lighted
from without ; fo that the fartheft extremity is very plainly feen from without ; and the
air within being agitated by the flux and reflux of the tides, is perfeétly dry and whole-
fome, free entirely from the damp vapours with which natural caverns in general
abound.
Weafked the name of it ; faid our guide, The cave of Fiuhn: what is Fiuhn? faid
we. Fiuhn Mac Coul, whom the tranflator of Offian’s works has called Fingal. How
fortunate that in this cave we fhould meet with the remembrance of that chief, whofe
exiftence, as well as that of the whole epic poem, is almoft doubted in England!
Enough for the beauties of Staffa ; I fhall now proceed to defcribe it and its produc-
tions more philofophically.
The little ifland of Staffa lies on the weft coaft of Mull, about three leagues N. E,
from Jona;er_the Columb-Kill: its greateft length is about an Englifh mile, and its
breadth about halfa one. On the weft fide of the ifland isa {mall bay, where boats
generally land : a little to the fouthward of which the firft appearance of pillars are to be
obferved ; they are fmall, and inftead of being placed upright, lie down on their fides,
each forming a fegment of a circle ; from thence you pafs a {mall cave, above which, the
pillarsnow grown a little larger, are inclining in all direCtions: in one place in particu-
lar a {mall mafs of them very much refemble the ribs of a fhip: from hence having
VOL. I. y a pafled
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