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.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 74 of 212
Words from 19649 to 19949
of 56696
