Page:Transactions of the Geological Society, 1st series, vol. 3.djvu/14

 general boundary, receiving no streams of magnitude. To the former belong the narrow lochs Slapin, Scavig, Brittle, Harpart, Eynort, Eishort, Sligachan, and Portree; lochs Bracadale, Follart, and Snizort, belong to the latter.

Although the elevation of the country is considerable, and the climate among the most rainy of this kingdom, Sky affords no rivers of magnitude: their course is too short to admit of the accumulation of large streams. The river which runs into loch Sligachan carries more water to the sea than any other, and after it perhaps follow in order those which run into the lochs Harpart, Slapin, Eishort, Bracadale, Portree, Snizort, and Broadford. The other streams are rivulets scarcely worthy of enumeration. The drainage of the whole country is determined by the positions of the hills and sea lochs, and may readily be collected from the preceding observations. There are three or four freshwater lakes, but of small size, and, except those of Coruisk and Colmkill, hardly worthy of the name. The courses of these streams exhibit but small traces of the wasting of the land. Like other mountain torrents they bring down at times rubbish and stones, but these bear no proportion to those accumulations of loose matte so common on the main land, nor do they offer any example of transported materials of which the origin is not to be traced to some neighbouring rock.

The surface of Sky appears at first sight one continued tract of brown moor, a dreary region of heath, and rock, and bog. Rugged mountains exhibiting naked spires of bare rock of which the sides are covered with ruins, lofty cliffs whose bases are whitened by a boisterous sea, a stormy atmosphere with almost incessant rains, complete the wild picture which first meets the eye of a stranger. Yet a more intimate acquaintance discovers scenes of grandeur and