That which Macleod of Raasay had
erected near his house was so contrived, because the harvest is
seldom brought home dry, as by perpetual perflation to prevent the
mow from heating.
Of their gardens I can judge only from their tables. I did not
observe that the common greens were wanting, and suppose, that by
choosing an advantageous exposition, they can raise all the more
hardy esculent plants. Of vegetable fragrance or beauty they are
not yet studious. Few vows are made to Flora in the Hebrides.
They gather a little hay, but the grass is mown late; and is so
often almost dry and again very wet, before it is housed, that it
becomes a collection of withered stalks without taste or fragrance;
it must be eaten by cattle that have nothing else, but by most
English farmers would be thrown away.
In the Islands I have not heard that any subterraneous treasures
have been discovered, though where there are mountains, there are
commonly minerals. One of the rocks in Col has a black vein,
imagined to consist of the ore of lead; but it was never yet opened
or essayed. In Sky a black mass was accidentally picked up, and
brought into the house of the owner of the land, who found himself
strongly inclined to think it a coal, but unhappily it did not burn
in the chimney.
