Raasay Is The Only Inhabited Island In Mr. Macleod's Possession.
Rona And Fladda Afford Only Pasture For Cattle, Of Which One
Hundred And Sixty Winter In Rona, Under The Superintendence Of A
Solitary Herdsman.
The length of Raasay is, by computation, fifteen miles, and the
breadth two.
These countries have never been measured, and the
computation by miles is negligent and arbitrary. We observed in
travelling, that the nominal and real distance of places had very
little relation to each other. Raasay probably contains near a
hundred square miles. It affords not much ground, notwithstanding
its extent, either for tillage, or pasture; for it is rough, rocky,
and barren. The cattle often perish by falling from the
precipices. It is like the other islands, I think, generally naked
of shade, but it is naked by neglect; for the laird has an orchard,
and very large forest trees grow about his house. Like other hilly
countries it has many rivulets. One of the brooks turns a corn-
mill, and at least one produces trouts.
In the streams or fresh lakes of the Islands, I have never heard of
any other fish than trouts and eels. The trouts, which I have
seen, are not large; the colour of their flesh is tinged as in
England. Of their eels I can give no account, having never tasted
them; for I believe they are not considered as wholesome food.
It is not very easy to fix the principles upon which mankind have
agreed to eat some animals, and reject others; and as the principle
is not evident, it is not uniform. That which is selected as
delicate in one country, is by its neighbours abhorred as
loathsome. The Neapolitans lately refused to eat potatoes in a
famine. An Englishman is not easily persuaded to dine on snails
with an Italian, on frogs with a Frenchman, or on horseflesh with a
Tartar. The vulgar inhabitants of Sky, I know not whether of the
other islands, have not only eels, but pork and bacon in
abhorrence, and accordingly I never saw a hog in the Hebrides,
except one at Dunvegan.
Raasay has wild fowl in abundance, but neither deer, hares, nor
rabbits. Why it has them not, might be asked, but that of such
questions there is no end. Why does any nation want what it might
have? Why are not spices transplanted to America? Why does tea
continue to be brought from China? Life improves but by slow
degrees, and much in every place is yet to do. Attempts have been
made to raise roebucks in Raasay, but without effect. The young
ones it is extremely difficult to rear, and the old can very seldom
be taken alive.
Hares and rabbits might be more easily obtained. That they have
few or none of either in Sky, they impute to the ravage of the
foxes, and have therefore set, for some years past, a price upon
their heads, which, as the number was diminished, has been
gradually raised, from three shillings and sixpence to a guinea, a
sum so great in this part of the world, that, in a short time, Sky
may be as free from foxes, as England from wolves. The fund for
these rewards is a tax of sixpence in the pound, imposed by the
farmers on themselves, and said to be paid with great willingness.
The beasts of prey in the Islands are foxes, otters, and weasels.
The foxes are bigger than those of England; but the otters exceed
ours in a far greater proportion. I saw one at Armidel, of a size
much beyond that which I supposed them ever to attain; and Mr.
Maclean, the heir of Col, a man of middle stature, informed me that
he once shot an otter, of which the tail reached the ground, when
he held up the head to a level with his own. I expected the otter
to have a foot particularly formed for the art of swimming; but
upon examination, I did not find it differing much from that of a
spaniel. As he preys in the sea, he does little visible mischief,
and is killed only for his fur. White otters are sometimes seen.
In Raasay they might have hares and rabbits, for they have no
foxes. Some depredations, such as were never made before, have
caused a suspicion that a fox has been lately landed in the Island
by spite or wantonness. This imaginary stranger has never yet been
seen, and therefore, perhaps, the mischief was done by some other
animal. It is not likely that a creature so ungentle, whose head
could have been sold in Sky for a guinea, should be kept alive only
to gratify the malice of sending him to prey upon a neighbour: and
the passage from Sky is wider than a fox would venture to swim,
unless he were chased by dogs into the sea, and perhaps than his
strength would enable him to cross. How beasts of prey came into
any islands is not easy to guess. In cold countries they take
advantage of hard winters, and travel over the ice: but this is a
very scanty solution; for they are found where they have no
discoverable means of coming.
The corn of this island is but little. I saw the harvest of a
small field. The women reaped the Corn, and the men bound up the
sheaves. The strokes of the sickle were timed by the modulation of
the harvest song, in which all their voices were united. They
accompany in the Highlands every action, which can be done in equal
time, with an appropriated strain, which has, they say, not much
meaning; but its effects are regularity and cheerfulness. The
ancient proceleusmatick song, by which the rowers of gallies were
animated, may be supposed to have been of this kind. There is now
an oar-song used by the Hebridians.
The ground of Raasay seems fitter for cattle than for corn, and of
black cattle I suppose the number is very great.
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