they call the giant's grave, and also evident traces of ancient cairns; all of which, though hardly noticed by or known to the natives, bear strong marks of monumental labour. On the top of Ben Haugh, is a large stone, placed on four others, resembling what is called a cromlech in Wales. Upon the sea shore at the southern point of the island, is a remarkable vein of the purest lead ore, which runs into the rock. It is very extraordinary no person has undertaken to work it. I saw specimens of it at Mr. M.'s, and was informed blocks of the ore, amounting to twenty or thirty pounds in weight, had been frequently taken from them by mere curiosity.

"The whole island of Col does not, as is erroneously supposed, belong entirely to its Laird. The Duke of Argyle has a farm at each extremity of it. These farms were originally church property; and, the Argyle family at the Reformation obtaining a grant of all the church property in Argyleshire, those farms came into their possession. Geographers have frequently erred in marking a bay, which they call Loch Chaad, near the south point of Col. There is no such bay whatever.

"The neighbouring island, Tirey, is separated from Col by a small sound, about three miles and a half across, at the west end of which lies the small island of Cunna, fertile, but uninhabited, belonging to the Duke of Argyle. The island of Tirey is not so much intersected by rocks as that of Col. It contains more arable pastures; but what crops there are in Col, are esteemed superior to those of Tirey. The cattle of Tirey are of little or no estimation, for this remarkable circumstance: they have no heath on the island, and the cattle by feeding constantly on a fine luxuriant grass, immediately die when taken to the coarser food of the neighbouring isles. For this reason, the

cattle bear no price out of the island, and the inhabitants, unable to sell them, suffer from being blessed with too luxuriant a soil. The riches of Tirey consist in the vast quantities of fine kelp, which is manufactured there. It has also a marble quarry, which was opened at the instigation of the celebrated German naturalist, Mr. Raspe, who spent a great deal of time among the islands of the Hebrides; but being found to yield no blocks of sufficient size, the progress of working the quarry has been discontinued.

"There is also a beautiful plain in Tirey, perfectly flat, and covered with verdure, five miles long, and three or four in breadth. The soil is full of marine shells, and from the appearance of its natural embankment on either side of it, there can be no doubt that it was originally covered by the sea. There is a plain of the same nature, but much smaller, in Col, formed apparently in the same manner. The waves of the sea having forced up a bank of sand to a great height, across a narrow opening between two hills, have ultimately created a natural boundary to themselves, and left a dry plain on the other side of the bank thus raised. Ancient coins are frequently found in the island of Tirey. I am indebted to Mr. Maclean's family for two of them.

I cannot take my leave of Col, without expressing a sense of the obligation I shall ever feel for the liberal hospitality experienced in the mansion of its Laird. We were utter strangers to the family, and entered their house as wanderers, without any recommendation, and were received not only with a hospitable welcome, but treated with a degree of magnificence, during our stay upon the island, which might have done honour to the noblest houses in Great Britain. To heighten our satisfaction, Mr. M. himself, with the same

zeal which his amiable but unfortunate brother* shewed to Dr. Johnson and Mr. Boswell, offered to accompany us for the remainder of our voyage; and from his general acquaintance with the principal families of all the islands in the Hebrides, we derived a passport to every thing worthy of notice among them.

"On the morning of the 23d we left the harbour of Col. Contrary winds, and much rain; in six hours' time, at one o'clock, cast anchor in the sound of Icolmkill. In our passage the view we obtained of the Treshannish isles and of Staffa was very fine. As we cast anchor, the numerous and extensive ruins of the cathedral, the monastery, and the tombs of Icolmkill, attracted all our notice. Being extremely impatient to land, the long boat was ordered out, and we hastened to set our feet on an island, rendered illustrious not only on account of its ancient celebrity, but in having called forth from the pen of Johnson, the most beautiful specimen of English composition that can be found either among his writings, or in the language it adorns.

"As we approached the shore, such a degree of sympathy prevailed among us, that every one of our party had it uppermost in his mind, and the moment we landed, no less than three of us broke forth in the following words: We were now treading that illustrious island, which was once the luminary of the Caledonian regions, whence savage clansand roving barbarians derived the benefits of knowledge and the blessings of religion. To abstract the mind from all local emotion

* He was drowned, a few months after Dr. Johnson's departure, off the rocks of Col; owing to a sudden squall of wind, which, in the midst of a total calm, overset the boat in which he was returning to the island. This happened between Ulva and Inch Kenneth. See Johnson's Tour, p. 339.

would be impossible if it were endeavoured, and would be foolish if it were possible. Whatever withdraws us from the power of our senses; whatever makes the past, the distant, or the future, predominate over the present, advances us in the dignity of thinking beings. Far from me and from my friends be such frigid philosophy as may conduct us, indifferent and unmoved, over any ground which has been dignified by wisdom, bravery, and virtue. That man is little to be envied, whose patriotism would not gain force upon the plain of Marathon, or whose piety would not grow warmer among the ruins of Iona.**

"However fervently we might have been impressed with the enthusiasm thus beautifully described, these emotions were speedily succeeded by feelings of a very opposite character. We found ourselves surrounded by a crowd of the most importunate and disgusting objects I ever beheld. Bedlam, disgorged of all its inhabitants, could hardly have presented a more dismaying spectacle. Close and directly opposite to me, a miserable idiot grinned horribly in my face; while on my right hand a raving lunatic, seizing my elbow, uttered in my ears a loud and fearful cry. Here a wretched cripple exposed his naked sores; there a blind and aged beggar besought pity on his infirmities. All the warm feelings excited by the ruins of Iona, or the retrospect of its former glory, were in one moment obliterated. It seemed the hospital of the Hebrides, a general infirmary, for the reception of every malady that could afflict human nature. This spectacle was rendered more remarkable by its singularity. The other islands we had seen were peopled by a sturdy race, among whom disease and sickness appeared seldom to find a victim. Age, or accidental calamity *"Johnson's Tour to Hebrid, p. 346."

alone, conducted their natives to the grave; and even age became an object of admiration, preserving beneath its silver locks, the glow of health,and limbs unbent by the pressure of accumulated years. The Western Islands hitherto appeared the residence of health and vigour ; the Highlanders were as the sons of Hercules, and their damsels as the daughters of Hygeia. But here seemed to be a concentration in one general mass of every description of infirmity, disease, and wretchedness. A few trifling donations soon dispersed the major part of this melancholy assembly; all but the madman, whose afflicted mind no gratuity could gratify, no commiseration alleviate, and with whom no entreaty would avail. A tattered plaid but ill concealed the filth and nakedness of his body. Sometimes trampling down with his bare feet the weeds and nettles that obstructed our path, he imagined himself our cicerone, pointed out among the ruins the sepulchres of the kings of Scotland, or led me aside to whisper where the long-forgotten tomb of some ancient chieftain was secretly concealed. As he spoke in Gaelic, his incoherent rhapsodies were fortunately attended with little interruption to our researches. It was only by means of an interpreter, who officiously explained his observations, when, with more than usual eagerness, he endeavoured to attract my notice, that I became enabled to comprehend any thing he said. What surprised me was, to find that at some moments, as if in a lucid interval, he repeated rationally the unreasonable traditions and superstitions of the place. A small stone coffin of red granite lay among the broad leaves of the Burdock,* at the west end of the cathedral. The poor

"The Burdock flourishes among the ruins of Icolmkill, with a profusion as singular as the size to which it grows: I measured one of the largest leaves, and found it to be two feet seven inches long, by three feet wide."