38 MEMOIR OF DR. WALKER. 



try of Coygach, which is well attended ; yet these 

 two schools are altogether insufficient for the in- 

 struction of the inhabitants of this vast parish, 

 which contains about two thousand five hundred 

 people, and in its extent rather resembles a pro- 

 vince, being thirty -six Highland miles in length and 

 twenty in breadth. There are three catechists sup- 

 ported in this parish upon the royal bounty, whose 

 salaries amount to twenty-seven pounds per annum, 

 and if a considerable part of this sum was rather 

 employed in supporting schools, it would probably 

 be productive of greater advantages. 



" Upon the 30th of August, I visited the society's 

 school kept at Dinetil, in the parish of Slait, in the 

 isle of Sky, by John M'Intosh. His salary is eight 

 pounds, and he has great difficulty to subsist upon 

 it. All his scholars, who had been two full years 

 at the school, read the Scriptures distinctly, and 

 understood them better than most of those I met 

 with. He is at great pains to make them translate 

 the English Bible into Gaelic, and to translate the 

 Irish Bible into English, which is certainly an ex- 

 cellent practice, and should be more followed by the 

 society's schoolmasters. For the Highland children 

 frequently come to read the English currently, be- 

 fore they have so much of the language as can 

 make them understand it when it is read ; but this 

 practice improves them in speaking as well as in 

 reading English, and makes them well acquainted 

 with the meaning of what they read. 



" The society's school kept at Bradfoord, in the 



