As

the property of the Marquis of Northampton. Loch Tua is formed by the Mull shore and the Islands of Ulva and Gometra, and they again form another loch, called Lochna-Keal, in the mouth of which lie the Islands of Inch Kenneth and Little Colonsay Loch-na-Keal nearly divides Mull, there being only four miles between its head and Salen pier in the Sound of Mull. The Channel Squadron anchored at the head of the loch in 1876. we approach Staffa, we observe that the large red life-Staffa boat is waiting to land passengers. This boat comes daily across from the Island of Gometra (five miles off). The boatmen, before the steamer arrives, have decided upon the best landing place for the day, as it depends entirely on wind and weather which part of the island may be found most suitable. Sometimes the landing has to be made at the end of the island farthest from Fingal's Cave, at other times the passengers are landed right at the entrance, or are rowed into the cave in the small boat.

"This stupendous basaltic grotto in the lonely Isle of Staffa remained, singularly enough, unknown to the outer world until visited by Sir Joseph Banks in 1772. As the visitors' boat glides under its vast portal, the mighty octagonal columns of lava which form the sides of the cavern- -the depth and strength of the tide which rolls its deep and heavy swell into the extremity of the vault unseen amid its vague uncertainty-the variety of tints formed by the white, crimson, and yellow stalactites which occupy the base of the broken pillars that form the roof, and intersect them with a rich and variegated chasing the corresponding variety of tint below water, where the ocean rolls over a dark red or violet coloured rock, from which the basaltic columns rise-the tremendous noise of the swelling tide mingling with the deeptoned echoes of the vault that stretches far into the bowels of the isle-form a combination of effects without a parallel in the world! Staffa means 'the isle of columns.' In the isle are six great caverns. On proceeding from the landing-place the objects of interest that challenge our notice and excite our wonder are-first, the Clamshell Cave; second, the Buachaille, or Herdsman; third, the Causeway, and the Great Face, or Colonnade; fourth, Fingal's, or the Great Cave; fifth, the Boat Cave;

and sixth, the Cormorants', or MacKinnon's Cave, These columnar caves range, or vary, from 18 to 50 feet in height; the depth of dark water within them from 36 to 54 feet. The Great Cave, which is named from Ossian's King of Selma, is rather more deficient in symmetry than the rest. The outline of the entrance, perpendicular at the side, and terminating in a contracted arch, is pleasing and elegant. The height, says MacCulloch, from the apex of this arch to the top of the cliff above, is 30 feet; from the former to the surface of the water at mean-tide, 66 feet. The total length inward is 227 feet."

The following lines on Fingal's Cave are from the pen of Sir Walter Scott:

"The shores of Mull on the eastward lay,
And Ulva dark, and Colonsay,

And all the group of islets gay

That guard famed Staffa round.

Then all unknown its columns rose,
Where dark and undisturb'd repose
The cormorant had found,

And the shy seal had quiet home,
And welter'd in that wondrous dome,
Where, as to shame, the temples deck'd
By skill of earthly architect,

Nature herself, it seem'd, would raise
A Minster to her Maker's praise!
Not for a meaner use ascend
Her columns, or her arches bend:
Nor of a theme less solemn tells

That mighty surge that ebbs and swells.
And still, between each awful pause,
From the high vault an answer draws,
In varied tone prolong'd and high,
That mocks the organ's melody.
Nor doth its entrance front in vain
To old IONA's holy fane.

That Nature's voice might seem to say,
"Well hast thou done, frail child of clay!
Thy humble powers that stately shrine
Task'd high and hard-but witness mine!"

Leaving the cave, we are conducted round the Cause

Corner Stone, being the
From this point a very
Pillars, seemingly bent

way, where is pointed out the
only square stone on the island.
fine view is got of the Bending
out by the weight of the mass above them.

Half way