INTRODUCTION. XXXi 



our hill pasture, which we had for fifty or sixty years, and 

 settled crofters upon it. We are still paying for that hill 

 pasture. We have no road, and if any of our people 

 die in the winter he has to be buried in the sea or in the 

 peat moss. Scobie closed up the road to the church-yard 

 with a gate, and before we could pass that way we would 

 have to break down the gate." 



WATERNISH, THE PROPERTY OF CAPTAIN ALLAN 

 MACDONALD. 



In the life-time of Major Macdonald, the present pro- 

 prietor's father, a great amount of pasture was .taken from 

 the people, which, as Donald Mackinnon said, " our fore- 

 fathers had ". Another witness, John MacLean, said, 

 " Factors came before the Macdonalds got it, and these are 

 the people that spoil a place. The last factor that was 

 before the Macdonalds removed the people from the high 

 to the low ground near the shore, took away their sheep 

 and horses, and put stock of his own on the hill." Accord- 

 ing to Neil MacDiarmid, " the west side of Waternish was 

 cleared ". He also states, " I cannot say to a mile how 

 much land the proprietor occupies himself, but he has the 

 ground of several townships. I cannot give an estimate of 

 the land once arable and occupied as townships now in the 

 proprietor's possession I will not try it, but it is big enough. 

 If you are on board the steamer, you will see that it extends 

 from sea to sea." Asked if he could give any idea of the 

 number of families that formerly occupied the lands now in 

 the hands of the proprietor, he said: "There were 18 

 families in Minsh ; 4 in Baile-Sheorach ; 18, latterly, in 

 Scorr ; and 10 in Lower Halistra ". He thought all these 

 clearances were made by the present proprietor's father, 



