86 VATERSA, &C. 



cipitous and rugged face, Mingala to the west and Ber- 

 nera to the south. 



Some future geologist will perhaps fill up the blank 

 which I have unwillingly left, if indeed there be any thing 

 in those two islands but what I have conjectured to exist. 

 He will be fortunate if he is not compelled to leave 

 much unseen, and to supply somewhat from conjectures. 

 Though like the philosopher in Rasselas he were to find 

 the winds and waves obedient to his word, he would 

 still have much to encounter. He cannot ride in a land 

 without roads, since his horse can neither tread the bogs, 

 nor scale the rocks. Though he may walk with the 

 strength of Antaeus, and like the Arab live on the " cha- 

 meleon's diet" it will avail him little, unless with the 

 wild duck, the proper tenant of this amphibious region, 

 he can also traverse the lakes and swim the friths. The 

 dependance which he may place on the maritime habits 

 of the islands will be overthrown at every step by the 

 mis-arrangements common in this country which display 

 so strikingly some of the characteristics of the Highlander; 

 an almost unsurmountable indolence, and a content which 

 is either satisfied with an expedient or submits to incon- 

 veniences of its own creating as if they were part of the 

 necessary career of his life. Poverty is not always the 

 cause of these inconveniences. If the poor fisherman 

 has no rudder to his boat, no yard to his mast, or no 

 sheet to his sail, his richer neighbour is often equally 

 in want of them. He who has traversed these islands 

 will easily recognise the truth of the subjoined picture*. 



* It was settled in the evening that we should visit Barra Head 

 on the following morning. Unfortunately the laird's only boat had been 

 left on the beach without an anchor a few days before, whence it 

 was carried away by the tide and dashed to pieces. But there was 

 an expedient at hand, as there was another boat in the island, and 

 it was borrowed for the occasion. In the morning, when ready to 

 embark, it was discovered that the borrowed oars had been negli- 



