24 ' MEMOIR OF DR. WALKER. 



" Stornoway, August 17, 1764. 



" My Lord, I received yesterday the favour of 

 your lordship's, and have taken this first oppor- 

 tunity, since my last, to acquaint you with my 

 progress. After leaving Isla, I proceeded to Jura, 

 Colonsay, Oronsay, Icolmkill, Mull, Coll, Tiree, 

 Rum, Egg, and Canna ; after which I went through 

 Barra, South and North Uist, Benbecula, Bernera, 

 Yalay, Pabhay, Ensay, and Harris, and arrived 

 yesterday at this place. 



44 1 have seen the most fertile lands T ever saw in 

 my life, without cultivation ; a people by nature 

 the most acute and sagacious, perfectly idle; the 

 most valuable fisheries, without lines or nets ; and 

 in every corner one of the finest harbours that ever 

 nature formed, a beautiful though useless void, as 

 inanimate and unfrequented as those of the Terra 

 Australis. 



u The only appearance of industry I have met 

 with in the islands is at this place. They have for 

 some time had a considerable fishery of cod and 

 ling. Their greatest discouragement is the diffi- 

 culty of procuring salt, and the hazard they run 

 with salt-bonds. But that I hope will be removed 

 in this corner by the erection of a custom-house, 

 which was done yesterday. 



" One of the most effectual encouragements of the 

 fishery in the islands, and I think the easiest and 

 cheapest that has yet occurred to me, would be 

 1000 worth of salt and casks laid up at one or 

 two proper places, to be sold to the inhabitants at 



