few fheep. I doubt not but when there was a college at Inch Kenneth, there was a hermitage upon Sandiland.

Having wandered over thofe extenfive plains, we committed ourselves again to the winds and waters; and after a voyage of about ten minutes, in which we met with nothing very obfervable, were again fafe upon dry ground.

We told Sir Allan our defire of vifiting Icolmkill, and entreated him to give us his protection, and his company. He thought proper to hefitate a little; but the ladies hinted, that as they knew he would not finally refufe, he would do better if he preferved the grace of ready compliance. He took their advice, and promised to carry us to carry us on the morrow in his

boat.

We paffed the remaining part of the day in fuch amusements as were in our power. Sir Allan related the American campaign, and at evening one of the la dies played on her harpsichord, while Col and Mr. Bof well danced a Scottish reel with the other.

We could have been eafily perfuaded to a longer ftay upon Inch Kenneth, but life will not be all paffed in delight. The feffion at Edinburgh was approaching, from which Mr. Bofwell could not be abfent.

In the morning our boat was ready; it was high and ftrong. Sir Allan victualled it for the day, and provided able rowers. We now parted from the young laird of Col, who had treated us with fo much kindnefs, and concluded his favours by configning us to Sir Allan. Here we had the last embrace of this amiablę man, who, while these pages were preparing to atteft CC4

his

his virtues, perished in the paffage between Ulva and Inch Kenneth.

Sir Allan, to whom the whole region was well known, told us of a very remarkable cave, to which he would show us the way. We had been difappointed already by one cave, and were not much elevated by the expectation of another.

and we stopped at fome

The mouth is fortified by

It was yet better to fee it, tocks on the coaft of Mull. vaft fragments of ftone, over which we made our way, neither very nimbly, nor very fecurely. The place, however, well repaid our trouble. The bottom, as far as the flood rushes in, was encumbered with large pebbles, but as we advanced was spread over with fmooth fand. The breadth is about forty-five feet : the roof rifes in an arch, almoft regular, to a height which we could not measure; but I think it about thirty feet.

This part of our curiofity was nearly frustrated; for though we went to see a cave, and knew that caves are dark, we forgot to carry tapers, and did not difcover our omiffion till we were wakened by our wants. Sir Allan then fent one of the boatmen into the country, who foon returned with one little candle. We were thus enabled to go forward, but could not venture far. Having paffed inward from the fea to a great depth, we found on the right hand a narrow pasfage, perhaps not more than fix feet wide, obftructed by great ftones, over which we climbed, and came into a fecond cave in breadth twenty-five feet. The air in this apartment was very warm, but not oppres five, nor loaded with vapours. Our light showed no

tokens

tokens of a feculent or corrupted atmosphere. Here was a fquare ftone, called, as we are told, Fingal's table.

If we had been provided with torches, we should have proceeded in our fearch, though we had already gone as far as any former adventurer, except fome who are reported never to have returned; and meafuring our way back, we found it more than a hundred and fixty yards, the eleventh part of a mile.

Our measures were not critically exact, having been made with a walking pole, fuch as it is convenient to carry in these rocky countries, of which I gueffed the length by ftanding against it. In this there could be no great errour, nor do I much doubt but the' Highlander, whom we employed, reported the number right. More nicety however is better, and no man fhould travel unprovided with inftruments for taking heights and distances.

There is yet another caufe of errour not always eafily furmounted, though more dangerous to the veracity of itinerary narratives, than imperfect menfuration. An obferver deeply impreffed by any remarkable spectacle, does not fuppofe, that the traces will foon vanish from his mind, and having commonly no great convenience for writing, defers the description to a time of more leifure and better accommodation.

He who has not made the experiment, or who is not accustomed to require rigorous accuracy from himfelf, will fcarcely believe how much a few hours take from certainty of knowledge, and diftinctness of imagery; how the fucceffion of objects will be broken, hów feparate parts will be confused, and how many

particular

particular features and difcriminations will be compreffed and conglobated into one grofs and general idea.

To this dilatory notation must be imputed the falfe relations of travellers, where there is no imaginable motive to deceive. They trufted to memory what cannot be trufted safely but to the eye, and told by guess what a few hours before they had known with certainty. Thus it was that Wheeler and Spen defcribed with irreconcilable contrariety things which they furveyed together, and which both undoubtedly defigned to fhow as they faw them.

When we had fatisfied our curiofity in the cave, so far as our penury of light permitted us, we clambered again to our boats, and proceeded along the coast of Mull to a headland, called Atun, remarkable for the columnar form of the rocks, which rife in a series of pilafters, with a degree of regularity, which Sir Allan thinks not lefs worthy of curiofity, than the fhore of Staffa.

Not long after we came to another range of black rocks, which had the appearance of broken pilasters, fet one behind another to a great depth. This place was chofen by Sir Allan for our dinner. We were eafily accommodated with feats, for the ftones were of all heights, and refreshed ourselves and our boatmen, who could have no other reft till we were at Icolmkill.

The evening was now approaching, and we were yet at a confiderable diftance from the end of our expedition. We could therefore ftop no more to make remarks in the way, but fet forward with fome degree

of

of eagernefs. The day foon failed us, and the moon prefented a very folemn and pleafing fcene. The fky was clear, fo that the eye commanded a wide circle: the fea was neither ftill nor turbulent; the wind neither filent nor loud. We were never far from one coaft or another, on which, if the weather had become violent, we could have found fhelter, and therefore contemplated at ease the region through which we glided in the tranquillity of the night, and saw now a rock and now an island grow gradually conspicuous and gradually obfcure. I committed the fault which I have just been cenfuring, in neglecting, as we paffed, to note the feries of this placid navigation.

We were very near an ifland, called Nun's Island, perhaps from an ancient convent. Here is faid to have been dug the ftone which was used in the buildings of Icolmkill. Whether it is now inhabited we could not stay to enquire.

At laft we came to Icolmkill, but found no convenience for landing. Our boat could not be forced very near the dry ground, and our Highlanders carried us over the water.

We were now treading that illuftrious ifland, which was once the luminary of the Caledonian regions, whence favage clans and roving barbarians derived the benefits of knowledge, and the bleffings of religion. To abftract the mind from all local emotion would be impoffible, if it were endeavoured, and would be foolish, if it were poffible. Whatever withdraws us from the power of our fenfes; whatever makes the past, the diftant, or the future predominate over the present, advances us in

the