Geology, 1 51 



with fragments of gneiss, and their lower parts with peat, upon 

 a subsoil of clay or angular gravel. The valleys, where the 

 rock does not occupy the surface, are covered with peat, com- 

 monly thin ; but, in some places, where the surface is pretty 

 level, from three to eight feet deep. There are no extensive 

 tracts of flat peat. It is not necessary to describe the numerous 

 varieties of this substance that occur in Harris ; and I shall on- 

 ly mention that some of them are very little inferior to coal as 

 fuel. In a few places, such as the Glen of llodill, part of the 

 farm of Strond, and part of Ob, the soil is gravelly, with a mix- 

 ture of vegetable mould and clay. The sand of the west coast 

 consists entirely of comminuted shells. Fragments of mytih, 

 myae, venuses, mactrae, and other common shells, are easily dis- 

 tinguisliable in it ; and the shells of Patella vulgata and Cardium 

 cdule occur even to a great distance from the shores, in a scarce- 

 ly altered state. This calcareous or shelly sand varies conside- 

 rably in fineness ; that near the sea is in general the coarsest. 

 By the attrition which its particles undergo in blowy weather, 

 it is sometimes, and especially in the spring season, reduced to 

 a very fine powder ; and from the west side of the island of Ber- 

 neray, and the east side of Pabbay, may often be seen carried 

 out several miles to sea, in the form of a dense white mist. I 

 have already mentioned the two large flats formed by this sand 

 on the west coast. In other places it is heaped into banks, 

 sometimes upwards of twenty feet in height ; and wherever it 

 abounds, it is mixed by drifting with the peat or earthy soil im- 

 mediately behind it, producing excellent pasture ground. 



Population, — According to the census of 1821, the population 

 of Harris was 3909. As in most of the other Hebrides, it is 

 entirely maritime, there being scarcely a hut in the country 500 

 yards distant from the shore. The inhabitants exhibit conside- 



iu a small eminence on the farm of Middle Borg, in a vein near the houses at 

 Big Borg, ill the Dun of Borg; and from thence to the east side of the coun. 

 try, ill a dozen different localities, in tlie irregular deposit, of which Scaire- 

 rUadh forms the most remarkable point. I mention these localities as being 

 all in connection ; but it occurs moreover in many others. As to sei-pentine, 

 I ha\re never seen any in Harris, excepting the bed in the island of Scalpay. 



