HARRIS. GENERAL DESCRIPTION. 157 



himself, and whose smoke, for want of other vent, must 

 find its exit at the door of his" miserable hut.* 



On the southern side of Harris the hills are more 

 clothed with earth and descend by more gentle slopes 

 to the sea, in consequence of which an interrupted tract 

 containing some good land is found along this coast. 

 A road is formed in this direction, perhaps the only 

 one practicable or even likely to be useful throughout 

 the country. The west side, as far as Loch Tarbet, is 

 marked by some accumulations of sand similar to those 

 which abound in the islands already described, one con- 

 siderable tract of which separates the hill called Toe 

 Head so as to insulate it from the main island. West 

 Loch Tarbet is a deep intersection between high mountains 

 that rise on each side and descend by very steep decli- 

 vities to the sea ; the land at its lower end being reduced 

 to so narrow a neck as to admit of the carriage of boats 

 from the west to the east side of the country. The whole 

 circuit from this place to Loch Resort is of similar cha- 

 racter, the mountains descending directly to the sea and 

 generally terminating in a level shore indented by small 

 bays and lochs. The boundary towards Lewis is merely 

 an imaginary line holding an arbitrary course through 

 an irregularly mountainous country. 



Such is the coast line. The interior of the country 

 is one irregular group of mountains placed without order 

 or connexion ; of very unequal elevation but generally 



* The following example is characteristic. An Highland estate wa 

 given in lease for 200 years to a cadet of the family, as a reward for 

 military services, under the sole condition of delivering it at the expira- 

 tion of the lease with a specified number of growing trees of a certain 

 age, and under a determined fine for each tree deficient in the required 

 age. That lease is on the point of expiring and as yet not a tree is 

 planted. When I visited it not long ago the lessee informed me that he 

 meant to plant to-morrow. lie had been twenty years in possession, and 

 his predecessors for five or six generations past had probably all like him 

 intended for the last 200 years to plant " to-morrow/ r 



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