one direction, it presents a long irregular wall, crowning the summit of
the highest hill, while in the other it resembles a huge tower. Thus it
forms no natural combination of outline with the surrounding land, and
hence acquires that independence in the general landscape which
increases its apparent magnitude, and produces that imposing effect
which it displays. From the peculiar position of the Scuir, it must also
inevitably be viewed from a low station. Hence it everywhere towers high
above the spectator; while, like other objects on the mountain outline,
its apparent dimensions are magnified, and its dark mass defined on the
sky, so as to produce all the additional effects arising from strong
oppositions of light and shadow. The height of this rock is sufficient
in this stormy country frequently to arrest the passage of the clouds,
so as to be further productive of the most brilliant effects in
landscape. Often they may be seen hovering on its summit, and adding
ideal dimensions to the lofty face, or, when it is viewed on the
extremity, conveying the impression of a tower, the height of which is
such as to lie in the regions of the clouds. Occasionally they sweep
along the base, leaving its huge and black mass involved in additional
gloom, and resembling the castle of some Arabian enchanter, built on the
clouds, and suspended in air." It might be perhaps deemed somewhat
invidious to deal with pictures such as these in the style the
connoisseur in the "Vicar of Wakefield" dealt with the old painting,
when, seizing a brush, he daubed it over with brown varnish, and then
asked the spectators whether he had not greatly improved the tone of the
coloring. And yet it is just possible, that in the case of at least
M'Culloch's picture, the brown varnish might do no manner of harm. But a
homelier sketch, traced out on almost the same leading lines, with just
a little less of the aerial in it, may have nearly the same subduing
effect; I have, besides, a few curious touches to lay in, which seem
hitherto to have escaped observation and the pencil; and in these
several circumstances must lie my apology for adding one sketch more to
the sketches existing already.

The Scuir of Eigg, then, is a veritable Giant's Causeway, like that on
the coast of Antrim, taken and magnified rather more than twenty times
in height, and some five or six times in breadth, and then placed on the
ridge of a hill nearly nine hundred feet high. Viewed