INTRODUCTION. XXXV 



taken from them was also added to Duntulm. " The people 

 are poorer than I can tell. Their poverty is indescribable. 

 When they go to the dealer for a boll of meal the animal he 

 is to get for it must be marked. We are constantly getting 

 poorer. Some of our poverty has been caused by our hill 

 pasture having been taken away." Archibald Macdonald, 

 Garafad, said that " they were not making the most of the 

 land owing to insecurity of tenure. They did not know 

 but what they might be deprived of the remainder of their 

 holdings as well as what was already gone. If the landlords 

 did the one they might do the other. They were only 

 putting the ground in heart to the extent which they could 

 exhaust in one year." Questioned by Lord Napier as to the 

 evictions at Bornesketaig, Kilmuir, eighteen years ago, 

 he said, " both crofters and cottars were removed, and their 

 township was added to Monkstadt. Four of the cottars 

 were placed in Totescore and other places from Balgown. 

 Four crofters were removed, and, after, the adjoining town- 

 ship of Feaull was cleared ; there were two tenants in 

 Feaull. One left of his own accord, and the other had to 

 give up the place owing to excessive rent. After that 

 Lachasay, on which there was one tenant, was cleared and 

 the land added to Duntulm. Besides the tenant who 

 paid rent there were two families who did not pay rent. 

 The township of Scorr, adjoining Lachasay, was afterwards 

 cleared of two families, and the town of Osmagarry was next 

 added to Duntulm. The lots in Bornesketaig were then as 

 numerous as they are to-day, but I have been told by old 

 persons that they were once occupied by a number as small as 

 four to seven. The township lands were more extensive 

 then than they now are. All these evicted people were 

 placed in other townships on the property, and for the most 

 part on land which had been exhausted by their predecessors. 



