The upper outline of the hills reminded me, with its multitudinous little coves and dry gullies, of the Vivarais or Auvergne Hills; and still more of the sketches of the Chinese Tea-mountains in Fortune's book.

Their water-line has been exposed, evidently for many ages, to the gnawing of the sea at the present level.

Everywhere the lava cliffs are freshly broken, toppling down in dust and boulders, and leaving detached stacks and skerries, like that called the 'Indians,' from its supposed likeness to a group of red-brown savages afloat in a canoe.

But, as far as I could see, there has been no upheaval since the land took its present shape.

There is no trace of raised beaches, or of the terraces which would have inevitably been formed by upheaval on the soft sides of the lava hills.