The Common Opinion Is, That Peat Grows Again Where It Has Been Cut;
Which, As It Seems To Be Chiefly A Vegetable Substance, Is Not
Unlikely To Be True, Whether Known Or Not To Those Who Relate It.
There are water mills in Sky and Raasa; but where they are too far
distant, the house-wives grind
Their oats with a quern, or hand-
mill, which consists of two stones, about a foot and a half in
diameter; the lower is a little convex, to which the concavity of
the upper must be fitted. In the middle of the upper stone is a
round hole, and on one side is a long handle. The grinder sheds
the corn gradually into the hole with one hand, and works the
handle round with the other. The corn slides down the convexity of
the lower stone, and by the motion of the upper is ground in its
passage. These stones are found in Lochabar.
The Islands afford few pleasures, except to the hardy sportsman,
who can tread the moor and climb the mountain. The distance of one
family from another, in a country where travelling has so much
difficulty, makes frequent intercourse impracticable. Visits last
several days, and are commonly paid by water; yet I never saw a
boat furnished with benches, or made commodious by any addition to
the first fabric. Conveniences are not missed where they never
were enjoyed.
The solace which the bagpipe can give, they have long enjoyed; but
among other changes, which the last Revolution introduced, the use
of the bagpipe begins to be forgotten.
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