To the oats
they apply the sickle. Wheel carriages they have none, but make a
frame of timber, which is drawn by one horse with the two points
behind pressing on the ground. On this they sometimes drag home
their sheaves, but often convey them home in a kind of open panier,
or frame of sticks upon the horse's back.
Of that which is obtained with so much difficulty, nothing surely
ought to be wasted; yet their method of clearing their oats from
the husk is by parching them in the straw. Thus with the genuine
improvidence of savages, they destroy that fodder for want of which
their cattle may perish. From this practice they have two petty
conveniences. They dry the grain so that it is easily reduced to
meal, and they escape the theft of the thresher. The taste
contracted from the fire by the oats, as by every other scorched
substance, use must long ago have made grateful. The oats that are
not parched must be dried in a kiln.
The barns of Sky I never saw. 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. Common ores would be here of no great value; for
what requires to be separated by fire, must, if it were found, be
carried away in its mineral state, here being no fewel for the
smelting-house or forge. Perhaps by diligent search in this world
of stone, some valuable species of marble might be discovered. But
neither philosophical curiosity, nor commercial industry, have yet
fixed their abode here, where the importunity of immediate want
supplied but for the day, and craving on the morrow, has left
little room for excursive knowledge or the pleasing fancies of
distant profit.
They have lately found a manufacture considerably lucrative. Their
rocks abound with kelp, a sea-plant, of which the ashes are melted
into glass. They burn kelp in great quantities, and then send it
away in ships, which come regularly to purchase them. This new
source of riches has raised the rents of many maritime farms; but
the tenants pay, like all other tenants, the additional rent with
great unwillingness; because they consider the profits of the kelp
as the mere product of personal labour, to which the landlord
contributes nothing. However, as any man may be said to give, what
he gives the power of gaining, he has certainly as much right to
profit from the price of kelp as of any thing else found or raised
upon his ground.
This new trade has excited a long and eager litigation between
Macdonald and Macleod, for a ledge of rocks, which, till the value
of kelp was known, neither of them desired the reputation of
possessing.
The cattle of Sky are not so small as is commonly believed. Since
they have sent their beeves in great numbers to southern marts,
they have probably taken more care of their breed. At stated times
the annual growth of cattle is driven to a fair, by a general
drover, and with the money, which he returns to the farmer, the
rents are paid.
The price regularly expected, is from two to three pounds a head:
there was once one sold for five pounds. They go from the Islands
very lean, and are not offered to the butcher, till they have been
long fatted in English pastures.
Of their black cattle, some are without horns, called by the Scots
humble cows, as we call a bee an humble bee, that wants a sting.
Whether this difference be specifick, or accidental, though we
inquired with great diligence, we could not be informed. We are
not very sure that the bull is ever without horns, though we have
been told, that such bulls there are. What is produced by putting
a horned and unhorned male and female together, no man has ever
tried, that thought the result worthy of observation.
Their horses are, like their cows, of a moderate size. I had no
difficulty to mount myself commodiously by the favour of the
gentlemen. I heard of very little cows in Barra, and very little
horses in Rum, where perhaps no care is taken to prevent that
diminution of size, which must always happen, where the greater and
the less copulate promiscuously, and the young animal is restrained
from growth by penury of sustenance.
The goat is the general inhabitant of the earth, complying with
every difference of climate, and of soil.
