102 BENBECULA. HIGHLAND POPULATION. 



constant accumulation of peat. But on the western 

 side the blowing of the sand produces an annual exten- 

 sion of the shore. The inhabitants even talk of a period 

 within their memory, at which Castle Wia, now a mile 

 from the sea, was surrounded by water. This pheno- 

 menon, already noticed in these islands, is the reverse 

 of those changes to which land is in ordinary cases 

 subjected. ; -Accumulations of soil and extensions of the 

 sea shore at the mouths of rivers are not uncommon, 

 MncJ the addkior,i is in these cases made by the waste 

 and transportation of the higher land, of which a portion 

 is also carried to sea and deposited at its bottom, gra- 

 dually diminishing its depth, and probably laying the 

 foundations of future stratified rocks. In this case on 

 the contrary, the opposite effect takes place ; the deposits 

 generated at the bottom of the sea by the constant 

 destruction of shells, being driven towards the shore by 

 the action of the waves and ultimately dispersed by 

 winds over the land ; where, with the assistance of plants, 

 they at length become a permanent addition to the soil, 

 extending the coast and causing the sea line to retire. 



BENBECULA, like Barra and other parts of this outer 

 chain, affords one of the most striking examples of that 

 redundancy of population for which the Highlands have 

 in many places been so frequently remarked. It is 

 a question too interesting to be passed over in absolute 

 silence, although a very slight notice alone of this and 

 similar subjects is compatible with the design of this 

 work. It has hitherto been discussed with much warmth, 

 in consequence of its connexion with many interests ; 

 the judgment of an uninterested person, although perhaps 

 less competent to treat it, will at any rate be unbiassed. 

 But we must not stumble at the threshold of the argu- 

 ment. A population is redundant, whatever be its absolute 

 numbers, where the labourers, whether, as here, in the shape 

 of kelp makers, of farmers, or of fishermen, are without 

 sufficient employment, and where without an increase of 



