d of them, with which it has been known to strike the benighted
traveller in the face, or to tumble him over into some dark pool. The
spectre may be seen at the close of evening hopping vigorously among the
distant bogs, like a felt ball on its electric platform; and when the
mist lies thick in the hollows, an occasional glimpse may be caught of
it even by day. But when I passed the way there was no fog: the light,
though softened by a thin film of cloud, fell equally over the heath,
revealing hill and hollow; and I was unlucky enough not to see this
goblin of the Liasic valley.

A deep indentation of the coast, which forms the bay of Broadford,
corresponds with the hollow of the valley. It is simply a portion of the
valley itself occupied by the sea; and we find the Lias, from its lower
to its upper beds, exposed in unbroken series along the beach. In the
middle of the opening lies the green level island of Pabba, altogether
composed of this formation, and which, differing, in consequence, both
in outline and color, from every neighboring island and hill, seems a
little bit of flat fertile England, laid down, as if for contrast's
sake, amid the wild rough Hebrides. Of Pabba and its wonders, however,
more anon. I explored a considerable range of shore along the bay; but
as I made it the subject of two after explorations ere I mastered its
deposits, I shall defer my description till a subsequent chapter. It was
late this evening ere the post-gig arrived from the south, and the night
and several hours of the following morning were spent in travelling to
Portree. I know not, however, that I could have seen some of the wildest
and most desolate tracts in Skye to greater advantage. There was light
enough to show the bold outlines of the hills,--lofty, abrupt,
pyramidal,--just such hills, both in form and grouping, as a profile in
black showed best; a low blue vapor slept in the calm over the marshes
at their feet; the sea, smooth as glass, reflected the dusk twilight
gleam in the north, revealing the narrow sounds and deep
mountain-girdled lochs along which we passed; gray crags gleamed dimly
on the sight; birch-feathered acclivities presented against sea and sky
their rough bristly edges; all was vast, dreamy, obscure, like one of
Martin's darker pictures: the land of the seer and the spectre could not
have been better seen. Morning broke dim and gray, while we were yet
several miles from Portree; and I reached the inn in ti