Page:Transactions of the Geological Society, 1st series, vol. 3.djvu/20

 preserved in an open state and subjected to the changes which pulverization and access of air always produce on it, adds the carbonaceous ingredient to the clay, and forms a true vegetable mould. It is a separate question depending on various other considerations, whether this species of improvement should in all cases be directed to the cultivation of grain; but there is no doubt that it could be easily turned to a system of ameliorated pasturage, a system under which, without exaggeration, one acre of land could be made to produce more than many hundreds in its present state.

It is not my business to inquire into the obstacles which impede this obvious improvement of a country possessing such capability. Want of capital may be one cause, but it is more probable that the chief impediments are of a moral nature, resulting partly from the characteristic indolence and contentedness of the inhabitants, and partly from the difficulties which always attend the introduction of novelty into practices long established.

The want of trees in this island must be attributed to similar causes, since they would grow well in innumerable sheltered situations, and since some parts of the island still exhibit the remains of ancient woods.

In mentioning the artificial divisions of Sky, I have already touched slightly on its general disposition and the disposition of its surface, but as these are intimately connected with the arrangement of its rocks, they require a more detailed consideration.

The principal group of mountains is that of the Culin or Cuchullin, so named from the well known traditional hero and king of this island. This forms an irregular mountain tract covering an area of ten or twelve miles by seven, and skirting the sea shore with a very bold series of declivities from near Loch Eynort to Loch Scavig. The single mountain Blaven forming along ridge between the lochs