HIGHLAND CATTLE. 91 



" It proved the excellency of the breed, that in the course of 

 two or three months so many of them got again into good store 

 condition, and might almost be said to be half-fat, and could 

 scarcely be restrained by any fence; in fact, there are numerous 

 instances of these cattle, which had been reduced to the most 

 dreadful state of impoverishment, becoming fattened for the 

 butcher in a few months, after being placed on some of the rich 

 summer pastures of Islay, Lewis, or Skye. 



"The cows were housed during the winter; but. among the 

 small farmers this was conducted in a singular way for one 

 rude dwelling contained and sheltered both the family and the 

 cattle. The family had their beds of straw or heath in the 

 niches of the walls, while the litter was never removed from the 

 cattle, but fresh layers of straw were occasionally laid down, 

 and so the floor rose with the accumulation of dung and litter, 

 until the season of spreading it upon the land, when it was at 

 length taken away.* 



"The peculiarity of the climate and the want of inclosed lands, 

 and the want, too, of forethought in the farmer, were the chief 

 causes of this wretched system of winter starvation. The 

 rapidity of vegetation in the latter part of the spring, is astonish- 

 ing in these islands. A good pasture can scarcely be left a 

 fortnight without growing high and rank; and even the unen- 

 closed, and marshy and heathy grounds are comparatively luxu- 

 riant. In consequence of this, the farmer fully stocked, or over- 



" *Mr. Garnet in his ' Tour through the Highlands,' gives a sadder account of the 

 frequent joint occupancy of the same hut, by the peasant and his cattle, in the 

 Island of Mull. He had been speaking of the privations of the peasant ; he adds : 

 4 Nor are his cattle in a better situation ; in summer they pick up a scanty support 

 among the morasses and heathy mountains, but in winter, when the ground is cov- 

 ered with snow, and when the naked wilds afford them neither shelter nor subsis- 

 tence, the few cows, small, lean, and ready to drop for want of pasture, are brought 

 into the hut where the family reside, and frequently share with them their little 

 stock of meal which has been purchased or raised for the family only ; while the 

 cattle thus sustained, are bled occasionally to afford nourishment for the children 

 after the mingled oatmeal and blood has been boiled or made into cakes.' 



