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    36 A VISIT TO HANDA.

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  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

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    Hand A Is A Smalland Of Late Years, An U...

    Roderick Murchison , the distinguished geologist , who pronounced , we were told by our friendthis portion alone to be well worth the

    , journey to Scourie . As , unfortunately , geology is almost an unknown science to ourselveswe can do no more than note this fact ,

    , and the singularity of the strata at this spot , running in perpendicular instead of lateral wavesso that to the unscientific eye it

    , looks like nothing so much as a huge mass of petrified drapery . Handa itself is formed of red sandstone , on which , as the

    Guidebook says , " a highly comminuted and beautifully grained conglomerate overlies . " What this means we do not profess to know ,

    and are not rash enough to imagine _, unless indeed it be a very fine ¦ white sand for which the east side of Handa is noted . As our

    boatmen , half landsmen , half sailors—one being the smith of the village , and the other our friend ' s fisherman and

    factotumrowed us past cliff and cavern and natural arch on the mainland , Handagradually sk _i ing from its gigantic and perpendicular cliffs

    on the , west side , mingled , here on the east , its green slopes with the white sanded bays , where the ocean , in its temporary calm ,

    rippled and gurgled and sparkled , as though sunshine and peace were its normal conditiontempest and fury the exception .

    , It was indeed a day of days for our excursion , and , as we rounded the north-east extremity of Handa , where , save on such a day , the

    billows rage with frantic and dangerous vehemence , our boat was little more than gently rocked by the " sea ' s perpetual swing-. "

    Here commenced the grand cliff scenery for which Handa stands unrivalledat least upon our British coasts—scenery so grand and

    impressive , that pen and pencil must alike fail to render it . Close to the base of these gigantic and perpendicular rocks , in

    among the detached columns where seldom boat can venture , did the smooth sea enable us to go , and , as the oars struck the water ,

    the sea-fowl , disturbed in their haunts , took wing with wild shrieks and criesandcircling around and above us , filled the air with

    weird sounds , well , suited to the gloomy grandeur of the scene . It was late in the , season , and many thousands of birds had already

    taken their departure , but still great numbers were left behind . A flock of slow and senseless puffins , with their clerical-looking black

    and white plumage , and their dark orange-coloured parrot beaks , literally covered one green bank , in whose soft soil they had

    burrowed holes for nests , while long rows of guillemots and kittawakes were perched on the projecting shelves of the serrated cliffs , in

    the depths of whose interstices the parent birds had made their nestsand patiently hatched their young . The red sandstone of

    the cliffs , was in these places whitened by the excrement of the birdsand the airas we rowed into , a creek formed by some

    detached , columns of , rocks , was strongly impregnated with ammonia from the same .

    What a fairy scene this creek was—the red stupendous cliff

    which backed it , with emerald green verdure peeping over its

    36 A Visit To Handa.

    36 A VISIT TO HANDA .

• Citation
  • English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), March 1, 1861, page 36, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01031861/page/36/