2 Mr. Smith's Visit to the Island of Lewis. 



group, and, though it was generally spoken of as a distinct island, it 

 was, nevertheless, connected with Harris by a narrow neck of land, 

 from which circumstance they were sometimes called the Long Island. 

 The rocks were of the primitivo, or granitic formation, and the surface 

 of the country had, altogether, a very peculiar aspect. It appeared 

 that tho peat moss had begun to be formod immediately upon the 

 granite rock, for below the moss there is a rough gravel, mixed with 

 small quantities of clay, and hardly such a thing as a distinct alluvial 

 deposit. Generally speaking, the subsoil was a rich gravel, and there 

 were no remains of trees, or coarse grass ; nothing but mossy plants. 



One might be led to suppose that the country was a dead flat, but 

 it was not so ; for in Lewis there were interspersed beautiful slopes 

 and valleys, through the centre of which various rivulets made their 

 way. Tho whole surface was covered with bog from two to ten feet, 

 and in some places twenty feet in depth, although the general depth 

 might bo stated at about four feet. Upon the surface of this bog 

 nothing was grown but bent grass and stunted heath, and on the whole 

 it had a very dreary aspect. Not a tree was to be seen ; all around 

 tli ere was the brown bent, and in the after part of the year, when it 

 became decayed, the appearance was peculiarly bleak and desolate 

 indeed. The island was not without its beauties, notwithstanding, for 

 the sea lakes which indented the coast, and the fresh-water lochs in 

 the interior, imparted to it rather an interesting effect. 



The most remarkable thing connected with the island, however, was 

 this, — that the slightest improvement did not appear to have gone on 

 for a very long period, and the people were very much in the same 

 position that the inhabitants of this country occupied a hundred years 

 ago. They still use the ancient distaff {figs. 2 and 3), although it was 

 a hundred years since it had been supplanted in this country by the 

 Dutch wheel, and nothing amused him more than to have seen the 

 women coming from Stornoway, carrying with them the spinning- 

 wheels, to commence what they conceived to be a novel and vast 

 improvement. He might mention that the advantages which the best 

 machinery of the day possessed over the distaff, were as a thousand to 

 one ; yet, by means of the distaff, these people managed to manufac- 

 ture their clothing, which, under the circumstances, was very comfort- 

 able. 



Their cultivation of the soil was as primitivo as their manufacture 

 of cloth. Their holdings were very small ; the island had been for fifty 

 or sixty years in the possession of proprietors who had no money to 

 improve, or with which to encourage the people ; and to this he in a 

 great degree attributed the primitive state in which he found them. 

 He also attributed it partly to the fact, that the Gaelic language was 

 almost universally spoken, and the inhabitants, therefore, could have 

 very little intercourse with the low country. There was no such thing 

 known as the young men going away from the island to push their 



