STAFFA, one of the Hebrides or Western Islands of Scotland, remarkable for its basaltic pillars. It was visited by Sir Joseph Banks, who communicated the following ac count of it to Mr. Pennant: “The little island of Staffa lies on the west coast of Mull, about three leagues north-east from Iona, or Icolumbkill: its greatest length is about an English mile, and its breadth about half a one. On the east side of the island is a small bay where boats generally land, a little to the southward of which the first appearance of pillars is to be observed; they are small; and instead of being placed upright, he down on their side, each forming a segment of a circle. From thence you pass a small cave, above which the pillars, now grown a little larger, are in dining in all directions: in one place in particular, a small mass of them very much resembles the ribs of a ship. From hence having passed the cave, which, if it is not low water, you must do in a boat, you come to the first ranges of pillars, which are still not above half as large as those a little beyond. Over against this place is a small island, called in Erse Boo-sha-la, separated from the main by a channel not many fathoms wide. The whole island is composed of pillars without any stratum above them; they are still small, but by much the neatest formed of any about the place.

“The first division of the island, for at high water it is divided into two, makes a kind of a cone, the pillars con verging together towards the centre: on the other they are in general laid down flat: and in the front next to the main, you see how beautifully they are packed together, their ends coming out square with the bank which they form. All these have their transverse sections exact, and their surfaces smooth, which is by no means the case with the large ones, which are cracked in all directions. I must question, how ever, if any part of this whole island of Boo-sha-la is two feet in diameter.

“The main island opposite to Boo-sha-la, and farther to wards the northwest, is supported by ranges of pillars pretty erect, and though not tall, (as they are not uncover ed to the base), of large diameters; and at their feet is an irregular pavement, made by the upper sides of such as have been broken off, which extends as far under water as the eye can reach. Here the forms of the pillars are apparent; these are of three, four, five, six, and seven sides; but the numbers of five and six are by much the most prevalent. The largest I measured was of seven; it was four feet five inches in diameter.

“The surfaces of these large pillars, in general, are rough and uneven, full of cracks in all directions; the transverse figures in the upright ones never fail to run in their true directions. The surfaces upon which we walked were often flat, having neither concavity nor convexity; the larger number, however, was concave, though some were very evidently convex. In some places, the interstices within the perpendicular figures were filled up with a yellow spar: in one place, a vein passed in among the mass of pillars, carrying here and there small threads of spar. Though they were broken and cracked through in all directions, yet their perpendicular figures might easily be traced: from whence it is easy to infer, that whatever the accident might have been that caused the dislocation, it happened after the formation of the pillars.

“From hence proceeding along shore, you arrive at Fingal’s Cave. Its dimensions I have given in the form of a table:
[table]

“The cave runs into the rock in the direction of north east-by-east by the compass.

“Proceeding farther to the northwest, you meet with the highest ranges of pillars, the magnificent appearance of which is past all description. Here they are bare to their very bases, and the stratum below them is also visible: in a short time it rises many feet above the water, and gives an opportunity of examining its quality. Its surface is rough, and has often large lumps of stone sticking in it as if half immersed: itself, when broken, is composed of a thousand heterogeneous parts, which together have very much the appearance of a lava; and the more so, as many of the lumps appear to be of the very same stone of which the pillars are formed. This whole stratum lies in an inclined position, dipping gradually towards the southeast. As bere abouts is the situation of the highest pillars, I shall mention my measurements of them, and the different strata in this place, premising, that the measurements were made with a line held in the hand of a person who stood at the top of the cliff, and reaching to the bottom; to the lower end of which was tied a white mark, which was observed by one who stayed below for the purpose: when this mark was set off from the water, the person below noted it down, and made signal to him above, who made then a mark in his rope: whenever this mark passed a notable place, the same signal was made, and the name of the place noted down as before: the line being all hauled up, and the distances between the marks measured and noted down, gave, when compared[7:20:557] with the book kept below, the distances, as for instance in the cave:

“No. 1, in the book below, was called from the water to the foot of the first pillar in the book above; No. 1 gave 36 feet 8 inches, the highest of that ascent, which was corn posed of broken pillars.

“No. 1. Pillar at the west corner of Fingal’s cave.

Feet In.

1. From the water to the foot of the pillar, 12 10

2. Height of the pillar, . . 37 3

3. Stratum above the pillar, . 66 9

“No. 2. Fingal’s cave.

1. From the water to the foot of the pillar, 36 8

2. Height of the pillar, . . 39 6

9. From the top of the pillar to the top of the arcb, . . . 31 4

4. Thickness of the stratum above, . 34 4

By adding together the three first measure ments, we got the height of the arch from the water, . . 117 6

“No. 3. Corner pillar to the westward of Fingal’s cave.

Stratum below the pillar of lava-like matter, 11 0 Length of pillar, . . 54 0

Stratum above the pillar, . 61 6

“No. 5. Another part to the westward.

Stratum below the pillar, . 17 1

Height of the pillar, . . 50 0

Stratum above, . . 51 1

“No. 5. Another pillar farther to the west ward.

Stratum below the pillar, . . 19 8

Height of the pillar, . . 55 1

Stratum above, . . . 54 7

“The stratum above the pillars, which is here mention ed, is uniformly the same, consisting of numberless small pillars, bending and inclining in all directions, sometimes so irregular that the stones can only be said to have an incli nation to assume a columnar form; in others more regular, but never breaking into or disturbing the stratum of large pillars, whose tops everywhere keep an uniform and regular line.

“Proceeding now along the shore round the north end of the island, you arrive at 0ua na scarce, or the Corvorant’s Cave. Here the stratum under the pillars is lifted up very high; the pillars above are considerably less than those at the northwest end of the island, but still very considerable. Beyond is a bay, which cuts deep into the island, rendering it in that place not more than a quarter of a mile over. On the sides of this bay, especially beyond a little valley, which almost cuts the island into two, are two stages of pillars, but small; however, having a stratum between them exactly the same as that above them, formed of innumerable little pillars, shaken out of their places, and leaning in all directions.

“Having passed this bay, the pillars totally cease; the rock is of a dark-brown stone, and no signs of regularity occur till you have passed round the southeast end of the island, (a space almost as large as that occupied by the pil lars), which you meet again on the west side, beginning to form themselves irregularly, as if the stratum had an inclination to that form, and soon arrive at the bending pillars where I began.

“The stone of which the pillars are formed, is a coarse kind of basaltes, very much resembling the Giant’s Cause way in Ireland, though none of them are near so neat as the specimens of the latter which I have seen at the British Museum, owing chiefly to the colour, which in ours is a dirty brown, in the Irish a fine black; indeed the whole production seems very much to resemble the Giant’s Causeway.”

Views of Fingal’s Cave are given in plates CCCLXIV and CCCLXV, under the head Minerology .