The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1892-07-26

Observation dAu experience.
The inhabitants number over two hun
dred and are all Protestants. They have
two churches and two resident ministers.
preached twice on the island on the
Sabbath and found the people sympa-
thetic hearers The English language is
spoken to some extent by most of the
people, but Gaelic is the common Ian
guage. l visited several Iof the houses
and found the people to be courteous
and warm-hearted. found in one house
an old couple, the man being So years old,
and his wife q little younger. They
could not speak English and probably
had never been off the island in their
lives. l here insert passage from DR..
johnson, which has often been quoted,
and is perhaps the finest passage in an
his writings. Though he was not apt to
be sentimental, he was deeply moved and
inspired at the time, and wrote that to
which l could heartily respond-"We
are treading that illustrious island which
was once the luminary of the Caledo--
man regions, whence savage clans and
rowing barbarians derived the benefits OF
knowledge, and the blessings of religion.
To abstract the mind from all local emo
lions would be impossible, if it, were en-
deavored, and would be foolish if it were
possible. Whatever withdraws us from
the power of our senses, whatever makes
the past, the distant or the future pre-
dominate over the present, advances us
in the dignity of thinking beings. Tear
from me and from my friends such priced
| philosophy as may conduct us indifferent
/. and unmoved over any ground which has
been dignified by wisdom, bravery or
virtue. That man is little to be envied
! whose patriotism would not gain force
| upon the plain of Marathon, or whose
| piety would not grow warmer among the
ruins of Iona.'' Boswell significantly
writes in regard to this Had our tour
| produced nothing else but this sublime
| passage, the world must have acknowl-
edged that it was not made in vain. The
present respectable president of the
| Royal Society (Sir Joseph Banks) was SO
| struck in reading it, that he clasped his
hands together, and remained for some
| time in an attitude of silent admiration.
must say something about the
Island of Staffa
which lies not far from Iona. This is
one of the worlds greatest natural Curl
| osities. 1t was formed by lava injected
by volcanic agency through the assures
| in the stratified rocks which evidently
| underiie it, This when it cooled, took
| the form of basaltic columns. The form
| alton corresponds with that of the Giants
| Causeway on the opposite coast OF Ire
| land, which | examined while there.
The island itself is only one mile and
| half in circumference. Its sublimity
and beauty have been the theme of prose
writers and poets! There is not house
| ON it. A solitary shepherd and his
| family at one time lived all the year
round on it, but he begged to be removed
| as the winter gales and dismal roar made
| by the sea through the caverns of the
island terrified him. The heptagonal
pillars vary in diameter. There is one
| column that has grit of twelve feet.
| The prismatic pillars appear as if they
had been erected by race of giants.
| The belief in former times existed in the
| popular mind that this was literally
| true. The finest exhibition of these is at
| Fingars Cave, which is the great attrac-
ton to visitors This is 327 feet long, AZ
feet broad, 66 feet high at ebb tide, when
| it has 25 feet of water. The pillars on
| its western side are SO feet high, and on
the eastern side II feet The walls in
| side are pillared with basalt in most
| striking forms. In the calmness of a
summer evening the reflected picture of
the cavern in the sea is marvellous. In
stormy weather the swell of the Atlantic
! pouring into the eaverns of Staffa fills
them with clouds of spray, and their
| gloomy depths are sheeted with foam.
| When the ocean pillows burst through
these pillared portals, with the roar of ar
tillery and surge into the darkness beyond,
the spectacle is awfully grand. | pene-
trated Fingal's Cave in a boat to the dis
tance of over 200 feet, and after emerg-
ing assembled by great effort on the out
side, and stood on the lofty eminence
Immediately over it. There are other
caves, but none have the picturesqueness
of Fingals. The poetic soul of Wards
worth was moved over the fury with
which the sea breaks against the pillared
coves of Staffa and found expression in
the following lines.
/ Down bearing with his whole Atlantic might,
4 OF tide and tempest on the structure vast,
| And flashing to that structures topmoSt height,
Ocean has proved his strength, and OF its
| In Gains is conscious, finding for its freight
OF softest music some responsive place."
JOHN MOORE.