HERRING FISHERIES. 243 



Highlanders, whofe neceflities render them defperate, 

 theft boats attend the buries through the molt tur- 

 bulent feas j they will undertake, even in the win- 

 ter feafon, voyages round the Mull of Cantire, and 

 to Ireland, though it too often happens that they 

 never return. They are hurried irrefiftibly by the 

 violence of the winds and the ftrength of the cur- 

 rents againft rocks, and in a moment are broke to 

 pieces 5 others are fwallowed up by the great fwell 

 of the ocean, againft which their fmall conftruction, 

 and the fcanty lupplies of ropes and fails, are ut- 

 terly inadequate. * 



Each 



* The reader will be able to form fome idea of thefe voyages, 

 and the dangers attending them, from the following narrative, by 

 the Rev. Mr. Macaulay ; which alfo contains fundry particulars 

 that tend to corroborate the character given of the Highlands in 

 the courfe of this work. 



On the 6th day of June 1758, I loofed from Harris, a part of 

 that large track of land now called the Long-Illand, and formerly 

 the weftern ^Ebuda. We fleered our courfe for Haw-Skeer, a 

 rock in the ocean, fo its name fignifies in the Gallic tongue, ly- 

 ing at the diibmce of feven leagues from the neafefl promontory 

 of North-Uift, to which it belongs. As the day was quite fultry, 

 and Haw-Skeer the only rcfting place in our way, and extremely 

 romantic, the crew found it convenient to rilt a little and divert 

 themfelves there. 



This rock is half a mile in circumference, acceflible in a fingle 

 place only, and though almoft totally deititure of grafs, is of fome 

 confequence to the proprietor, bein^ at ilated periods the conftant 

 haunt of a prodigious number of feals, and theie perhaps by much 

 the largeft upon the coaft of Scotland. The manner in which thele 

 fea animals are hunted down in this place, the feafon fit for that 

 profitable diverfion, the ferocity and little flratagems of thefe im- 

 wieldly creatures when aflaulted, their love dalliances upon other 

 occafions, that violent fpirit of jealouty with which they are actu- 

 ated, if provoked by rivals ; thefe and fome other particulars, are 

 drcumftantially enough related by Martin in his description of the 

 Weftemlfles. To his account of the matter I (hall only add, 

 that the fat of the feals, is by the people, to whofe fhare that per- 

 quifite falls, converted now into oil and fent to market. But in 

 that writer's time, and for ages immemorial before, this* together 

 with the flefli of thefe animals, was eaten, either frefli or faked ; 

 and by thofe who were ufed to it, was accounted a pleafant as well 

 as a very falubrious and rich kind of aliment, 



Oft 



