HARRIS. GENERAL DESCRIPTION. 155 



islands and cliffs which form them are considerably higher, 

 and often indeed approach to the mountain character. 

 These rocks are bare, or sprinkled with rare and scanty 

 patches of verdure, which, when of somewhat continuous 

 extent, are generally inhabited by solitary tenants, sub- 

 sisting by the double occupation of farming and of ma- 

 nufacturing kelp. 



The intricate admixture of land and water, the occa- 

 sional height and magnitude of the masses of rock, the 

 unceasing variety of their forms and positions, and the 

 magnificence of the screen of mountains by which this 

 coast is backed, produce together a mass of picturesque 

 scenery offering frequent and tempting subjects to the 

 pencil of the artist. The scenes are often such as to 

 remind him of the well-known and romantic recesses 

 of Loch Ketterin,*" and only require like them the orna- 

 ment of trees to rank amongst the most picturesque 

 parts of Scottish landscape. But art and Nature con- 

 spiring have denied to Harris this necessary appendage 

 of landscape as well as of rural economy, since not a 

 shrub of higher claims than heath is to be found through- 

 out the whole country. There is a period in civilization 

 when wood is destroyed and there is a succeeding one 

 when it is planted. But 'there is a long interregnum 

 of severe want between these, and that interval is no 

 more terminated in many parts of the main land of 

 Scotland than it is in the shelterless plains and naked 



* The etymology, and consequently the spelling, of this name is so 

 often mistaken that it may as well be rectified. Cath-earn, the th 

 being dormant, men of war, or soldiers. Hence, following the orthogra- 

 phy, Caterans, Ketterins; the Quatrani of Fordun. Kernes, which 

 follows the Gaelic pronunciation, is the well-known appellation of the 

 Highland freebooters as used by Shakspeare, of which this lake from its 

 vicinity to the Lowlands and the security of its trackless recesses, was 

 a favourite strong hold. Hence the obvious impropriety of Loch 

 Catherine. 



