1.54 HARRIS. GENEUAL DESCRIPTION. 



HARRIS.* 



THE northern half of the outer chain of islands is 

 separated, as was lately shown, from the southern, by 

 the sound of Harris, and is divided into two districts, 

 the Lewis and the Harris, which however form but one 

 island. This island, which appears to have no appro- 

 priated name, is nearly intersected at the point called 

 Tarbet by the indentations of the eastern and western 

 seas; a natural division which does not coincide with 

 the political one, since that is denoted by an irregular 

 line drawn from the middle of Loch Seaforth to the end 

 of Loch Resort ; being the same which forms the line 

 of demarcation between the two proprietors, Seaforth 

 and Macleod of Harris. It will be most convenient to 

 describe each division separately, although there is no 

 point where the physical constitution of the two can 

 be said to change. 



Harris is of an irregular form resembling the three 

 quarters of a square, its diagonal length being about 

 twenty-four miles, and its breadth about seven. It 

 presents a coast every where deeply intersected by sea 

 lochs, which, as is usually the case in this country, are 

 interspersed with islands and rocks. On the east side, 

 nearly the whole shore presents this character, few slopes 

 descending into the sea, and scarcely a beach or sandy 

 bay being visible throughout its whole extent. Numerous 

 harbours are formed by these lochs ; while the intricacy 

 of their sinuosities offer shores resembling in length 

 and complication those already described in Benbecula 

 and North Uist ; with this difference however, that the 



* Pronounced Earradh by tlie Highlanders. This word signifies 

 a division. Ear, a head, (Gaelic) may also be the origin of the present 

 name, which is a modernized one. 



