ALLOA TO SKYE. 359 



finest grazing is at M'Leod of M'Leod's, and also 

 in the parish of Bracadale. There is very little 

 high farming to speak of. Regents and Irish Rocks 

 are the staple of a grand potato crop ; turnips are 

 few, and mangels unknown ; and all the wheat flour is 

 imported. Except at a stall in Portree, there is very 

 little public beef and mutton. Butter and cheese are 

 not exported, and all groceries come from Glasgow. 

 The horses have been crossed in-and-in with half 

 Clydesdales and ponies, and now they seem to have 

 settled into a large fourteen-hand pony, which would 

 be none the worse for another stain of blood. North 

 and South Uist are the pony islands ; and both of 

 them used to have races on the sands, by way of cele- 

 brating their harvest-home at Michaelmas (old 

 style), with dancing and Michaelmas bannocks 

 to follow. These " struans," as they call the cake of 

 barley-meal in the shape of a heart, are toasted be- 

 fore the fire, and dressed with treacle, eggs, and 

 carraway-seeds, and then eaten by lovers and guests 

 in general. 



We did not go on to Lews, as, with the excep- 

 tion of its smaller breed of cattle black with 

 brown backs and ears, killing from 300 to 3501bs. 

 neat the flock and herd history of one of these 

 islands is pretty much that of another. Lewis or 

 Lews is generally flat and mossy, with the ex- 

 ception of the south end of the Island. There are 

 splendid hills and glens abounding with deer and 

 grouse and other varieties of game. The ancient 



