46-i 



Highlands and Islands Commission. 



Alexander 

 Carnjicliael. 



ground. And, perhaps, it is in the ntting order of things that these, the last 

 lingering footsteps of this far-travelled pilgrim from the eye of day, should here 

 sink down on the bosom of endless night, where the last rays of the setting sun 

 sink and disappear in the mysterious fading horizon beyond. But this is a practical 

 age, and these are day dreams^ I am no advocate for the retention of a system 

 now effete, and yet I cannot help heaving a sigh of regret on seeing a system, 

 once and for ages, the land system of millions of the human race, now disused, 

 discarded, and disowned, disappearing, and for ever, on the shores of those eerie 

 Western Isles, washed by the Atlantic tide, whose waves pour their dirge-like 

 strains over the dying, while the voice of Celtic Sorrow waUs on the lonely 

 ear of Night — 



' Cha till, cha till, cha till mi tuille ! ' 

 ' I return, I return, I return nevermore ! ' 



The townlands of Heisgeir, Caolas Paipil, and Hosta are worked alike. The 

 first contains ten, the second six, and the third four tenants. 



These three farms were of old occupied by one tenant in each. When they 

 were let, one after another, some years ago to small tenants, these new tenants 

 adopted the Run-Rig System in its entirety, as the system best adapted to the 

 circumstances of their position. Nor must they be condemned in this without 

 taking all the circumstances of their position into consideration. Moreover, 

 these men are probably as well qualified to judge of their own requirements as 

 any person likely to sit in judgment upon them. 



Heisgeir. 



Heisgeir is a low-lying sandy island in the Atlantic. It is three miles in 

 length, and a mile and a third in breadth at its broadest. When the tide is in, 

 the island is divided into three by two fords that cross it ; while beyond it lies 

 the Island of Seiley, separated by a strait a third of a mile wide that never dries. 



Heisgeir lies four and a half miles from North Uist, to which it belongs. 



The island is variously called Heisgeir, Teisgeir, and Aoisgeir. The last form 

 is the key to the meaning of the name, but the first being the most common form 

 I shall adhere to it. 



Aoi is a Gaelic name for isthmus. An isthmus, Aoi, connected the island of 

 Heisgeir with the mainland of North Uist. 



The isthmns was called Aoi, as simUar places are still called. But, partly 

 through the gradual subsidence of the land, and partly owing to the gradual dis- 

 lodgment of the friable sand forming the isthmus, the isthmus by degrees gave 

 way to fords, and the fords broadened into a strait four and a half miles wide 

 and four fathoms deep. Tradition still mentions the names of those who crossed 

 these fords last, and the names of persons drowned in crossing. 



As the isthmus gradually disappeared, the name Aoi disappeared with it, and 

 became attached to the peninsula beyond it, now an island. A similar process 

 is going on elsewhere, and under precisely similar conditions. 



And this I take it is the way in which the island of lona acquired its present 

 Gaelic name. This sacred isle is called in Gaelic, I Clialiun Chille, and which is 

 usually translated ' Isle of Columba of the Churches.' But there is no such word 

 in Gaelic as I for an island. Therefore, I take it that I is simply a mal- 

 pronunciation of Aoi, and that the correct Gaelic name of lona is, Aoi Chaluni 

 Chille. lona was called Aoi in the year 1088. 



That lona became an island as Heisgeir became an island is extremely 

 probable. Perhaps there was less subsidence of land, but that a Handy 



