178 LEWIS. HISTORY OF THE WESTERN ISLES. 



neither be accumulated under one comprehensive plan, 

 nor wait the slow returns which must ever follow the 

 first advances in objects of this nature. Let the spec- 

 tator who admires the industry of the small tenants, 

 turn his eyes from the little rocky croft of the laborious 

 farmer, to the wide, undrained, unenclosed, and unpro- 

 ductive moor, and there he will find Nature languishing 

 for want of that attention which bestowed on worse 

 subjects supports the crowded population of this country. 

 He will then perhaps exclaim against the want of in- 

 dustry which suffers to lie waste, tracts of land capable 

 of yielding great resources and of maintaining a great 

 increase of the present population. But I need not dwell 

 on this subject, the remarks made throughout various 

 parts of this work being sufficient to convey a general 

 idea of the political and agricultural state of these islands. 5 * 



THERE are some circumstances in the population of 

 Lewis connected with the ancient history of these islands, 

 which are not to be observed elsewhere among them, nor 

 perhaps any where so distinctly throughout the High- 

 lands. A few remarks on these may not be unamusing 

 to the reader, who can scarcely fail to have acquired 

 some interest in the general history of the Western 

 islands independent of that which arises from their 

 physical structure. 



Numerous fishing boats are generally to be seen about 

 the Butt, manned each by nine men rowing eight oars in 



* This district still possesses one of the ancient peculiarities now 

 extinct in almost all the other islands, and indeed nearly so every where. 

 This is the employment of tacksmen, of whom there are thirteen. 

 It is unnecessary to discuss here the comparative advantages and 

 defects of a system so nearly abandoned. The southern traveller 

 will also be surprised to see women still employed in drawing the 

 harrow, and in droves, like horses, carrying the peat from the moors 

 into Stornowfiv. 



