upper structure, and I estimated that its present height is 45 feet. It is built of undressed boulders of red granite, and where white lime, made of burnt shells, has been used, it is only sparingly so, and wherever even a very small stone could be employed, it has been fitted in. The doorway is at a height of 8 feet from the ground, and the writer was enabled to climb up to it by the help of the interstices between the stones. Here it was found that the wall was 4 feet 3 inches in thickness, the doorway itself being 5 feet high.

Looking upwards through the interior, projecting stones at regular distances seemed to indicate the existence of stone floors when the tower was in use, and these floors were five in number, so far as the present state of the tower enabled one to judge, the communication between them being probably by means of ladders. That Round Towers were, to some extent at least, intended for places of refuge, is shown by their mode of building, as well as by the fact of the door being placed in so comparatively inaccessible a position.

The next most important ruin in the island is the Abbey of St. Finian. Its extent was easily ascertainable in 1870, and a few years previous to that an arch, probably the east door, was intact; but now the whole is an indistinguishable heap of stones. This abbey is believed to have been founded by St. Columba in the sixth century, before he commenced his missionary work in Iona.

The remains of another church are met with outside the "town" as you travel westwards. This is "The Church of the Seven"- -or Mor Sheishear-a very small place of worship, as it does not seem from the examination made by the writer to have been more than 12 feet long. From a hole in the wall earth is sometimes taken, which is guaranteed to banish rats from any house in which it is placed. The natives are jealous of any stranger helping himself to this sacred deposit, so the services of the man who has the assumed privilege had to be secured; but the result of its use when transported to the mainland was not successful in causing the rats to depart.

Near the Tower is a rude collection of stones, mostly chiselled, which gets the name of "The Altar of St. John the Baptist." A trough-shaped mass of sandstone, 4 feet 10 inches long and 5 inches deep, with a cup-shaped vessel, rudely fashioned of the same material, is placed in the centre. The uses of these remains are

not known, but at this "altar" the priest was in the habit of officiating before the present chapel was built.

There are three Crosses on the island, although one of them could not now be recognized as such. The least imperfect is placed on a pedestal, built in 1877, by the Rev. James M'Fadden, for its preservation. It is of mica slate, and is 6 feet in height, ending, as it does, at the arms. No markings are now visible.

The second cross is called St. Columba's Cross, from the idea that the figure of a man indicated on it represents that saint. The third is known as St. John's Cross. It has lost its arms, which, however, are carefully laid at the side of the monolithal pedestal on which it stands.

Another, and more perfect Cross, was taken, a long time ago, from Tory, and now lies in the graveyard of Ray Church, near Falcarragh.

They point to a very

So much for the ecclesiastical remains. remote time, and are, I think, full of interest, especially when looked at in the picturesque light which the legends of the islanders have associated with them, but which it would not be suitable to reproduce here. It seems to be determined with tolerable accuracy, however, that Columba left his native place, Gartan (about 11 miles from Ramelton), and established a religious fraternity in Tory Island, before he went to Derry, or thence to Iona. Some of the remains are certainly coeval with his residence there, and others later, but all old-probably from the sixth to the tenth century. Botany. With a granitic soil, the island is anything but fertile. The people don't attempt to grow oats; barley and potatoes are the principal crops. From the west town to the east town-a distance of a mile-the rocky substratum is covered by a thin coating of peaty soil, except where it has been removed for fuel. It is generally only nine inches to a foot in depth, and ultimately the people will be compelled to leave the island for want of fuel, for they are, as a rule, too poor to buy coal. This peaty surface soil is covered by a stunted growth of heather (Calluna vulgaris), associated with Nardus stricta and Carex panicea, along with some grasses, which solely seem to justify the presence of a few sheep and two or three very lean cattle. The sward on the summit of the eastern cliffs is composed, to a large extent, of a dwarf variety of sea thrift (Armeria maritima). On the shore, above high-water mark, the common scurvy grass (Cochlearia officinalis) is every