Page:Transactions of the Natural History Society of Northumberland, Durham, and Newcastle-upon-Tyne 1838 Vol.2.djvu/243

Rh sent to the eye an unbroken precipice of nearly 1400 feet in height. If it be remembered that Arthur's Seat, near Edinburgh, standing on an uneven surface, and presenting no precipitous boldness of outline, is far from being an insignificant object, yet is only about 800 feet in elevation; let it be conceived, how imposing a mass must be presented by an island in the open sea, rising almost perpendicularly in gigantic grandeur to a height so much greater, with no other speck of earth to rest the eye on, or interfere with the vastness and independence of these tremendous rocks. Nothing can be more interesting, or more instructive and ennobling, to the mind of man, than the contemplation of the works of his Maker, which are daily before us, but when scenes of such immensity and grandeur present themselves, that even imagination has not pictured them, the soul must indeed be unsubdued which does not bow with admiration and awe. It would be difficult to explain the feeling that predominates in the mind in the contemplation of such a scene, but one of conscious insignificance and littleness must arise, when human beings are suspended and crawling among these cliffs, and our faculties are scarcely able to distinguish their diminished forms in the chaos of rocks which surrounds them.

Whatever I might say on the subject, however, cannot convey an adequate idea of the rocks of St. Kilda; but if in laying before the Natural History Society so imperfect a description of this most unknown part of the British dominions, I am the means of inducing others to visit these islands, with a portion of the satisfaction I experienced in doing so, it will be matter of sincere pleasure to me, and tend to convince me that even this brief notice has not been in vain.