Volume 3 - Electric Scotland

310 NORTH RONA.
space, the whole ground, at au elevation of two hundred
feet, was washed away to the bare foundation ; large
masses of rock being frequently thrown up, and carried
high along the level land, as if they had been mere peb-
bles on a sea beach. The shepherd informed us that his
sheep fold, which seemed secure enough to our eyes, was
often washed clean away ; the whole conveying an idea
of the height and force of the waves, of which it M'ould
have been otherwise impossible to have formed any con-
ception. Rona can be no peaceful solitude when the half
of it is thus under water ;
and the solid breach of the sea
then made against its bows, (in sea phraseology), must
cover the whole, in gales of wind, with a continual shower
of spray. From this lower western angle, the land rises
with a gentle and even swell towards the north and east
but having no inequality of ground to afford the least
shelter, it is necessarily swept by every blast. The sur-
face is, nevertheless, green, and every where covered
with a beautiful compact turf; except where it is broken
up for cultivation, for the space of a few acres in the mid-
dle and elevated part.
The highest point is near the north-eastern end ; and
hence, in clear weather, the lofty hills of Sutherland are
visible in the horizon. But that does not often happen
in this territory of the waves and winds ; nor could the
lower land of Lewis be seen. It can afford little conso-
lation to the Captain of Rona that his consort Barra sails
in the same fleet ; as, at the distance of ten miles, it takes
little from the solitude of his own domain. Surely
if aught on earth, or rather on sea, can convey the
complete feeling of solitude and desertion, it is Rona,
Ten minutes were well spent in sitting alone on the
highest point of this spot in the ocean, where nothing was
to be seen around but sea and sky, and in indulging
day dreams of abandonment and despair, such as those
;