It is the south side of the island that is chiefly remarkable, of which I will show you a picture that I made on the spot. It has (as you may see) exactly the appearance of a great layer of earth swelling out at the edges, resting on a vast number of pillars stuck close together. The colour of the pillars is nearly black, and that of the stratum above, lightish green, yellow, and brown, from the grass and variously coloured lichens that grow upon it. The sea is very deep, quite close to the cliffs. The day I was there, was as fine as possible; not a cloud was to be seen, and the great ocean was as calm as a mill-pond, which is not very common in these parts, for there is mostly a considerable swell. The celebrated cave of Fingal, as it is called, (but why, nobody knows,) is close to one extremity of the south side. [Illustration: Plate IX. FINGAL'S CAVE] It seems just as if it had been formed by cutting away the middle of some of the pillars, since you can see that many parts of the pillars now remaining on the roof, are placed as if they were continuations of the stumps on which you walk at the bottom. We went into it in a boat, and when we were at the farther end, we got out upon the broken pillars and surveyed everything at our leisure. The length of the cave is two hundred and fifty feet, the breadth about forty, and the height above one hundred feet at the entrance, and seventy at the inner end. Along the middle of the roof, is a deep cleft, or fissure, which makes it something like a pointed arch, resembling the roof of a cathedral. The sides of the fissure are variegated, yellow, red, brown, and white, in consequence of water containing various substances, soaking through from the surface above; and on each side of it, there are several rows of the top of the broken pillars, which look quite black. On the sides at the bottom, the stumps form a sort of pavement like this, which is an exact copy of a small portion of it, and will show you the forms of the pillars; some stand higher than others; but there is not generally sufficient difference to prevent you from walking over them. [Illustration] Between these pavements the water is very deep, and as it flows direct from the Atlantic Ocean without any dirty shore or shallows, it looks very beautiful,--of a clear emerald green, showing at the bottom the black basaltic pillars in ruins, and a very few long luxuriant sea-weeds gracefully waving with the undulations of the water. The exposed surfaces of the pillars, between high and low water-marks, are covered with the little shell-fish called _balanus_, or BARNACLE, of colours varying from pink, which is the hue of those that are placed deepest, to yellow and white, which are those that are least covered by the water.