Volume 3 - Electric Scotland

174 ST. KILDA.
waist, and only waiting the word of command ;
anxious,
as it seemed, to make a display, but quite as well pleased
to remain where he was.
All this is fearful and sublime, but it transcends the
bounds of the picturesque ;
as all objects must where the
impression is rather made on the mind than the eye. He
who is not accustomed to analyze landscape, to combine
it with its moral associations, to look at it with the eye of
a poet as of a painter, must blame himself, not the art
nor his subject, if neither terror is felt nor danger appre-
hended from his picture ; if the contention of the elements
is not heard by the eye, and if the awe produced by di-
mensions before which man feels himself but as an insect,
is not excited by a few square feet of canvas. To at-
tempt such subjects, is to mistake the object and powers
of art.
There are some rocky points near the foot of this pre-
cipice, one of them presenting a magnificent natural arch,
which, in any other situation, would be striking, but are
here lost in the overpowering vicinity of the cliffs that
tower above them. In proceeding, these soon become
low ;
but at the north-western extremity, the island again
rises into a hill nearly as high as Conochan, terminating
all round towards the sea by formidable precipices, which
are continued nearly to the south-eastern point of the bay.
Here, a rock, separated by a fissure from the island, dis-
plays the remains of an ancient work; whence it has de-
rived the name of Dune. The surface of the land forms
an uneven ridge, somewhat rocky to the south, but pre-
senting elsewhere a nearly uniform, smooth, and green
surface. Excepting some imperfect peat on the highest
point, the whole is covered by a thick turf of the finest
and freshest verdure : the consequence, probably, as
much of its perfect drainage as of its trap soil. It con-