26 ST. KILDA. GENERAL DESCRIPTION. 



effects naturally resulting from these different states of 

 the population. It is in a limited and insulated spot 

 like this, that some of the immediate causes which in- 

 fluence population might perhaps be advantageously 

 traced ; but unfortunately no facts can be collected 

 towards this object from a people who have little to 

 attend to beyond the wants of the passing day. 



The neglect of fishing proceeds from the wealth of the 

 inhabitants. They possess already as much food as they 

 can consume, and are under no temptation to augment 

 it by another perilous and laborious employment added 

 to that to which they seem to have a hereditary attachment; 

 while their distance from a market, and the absence of 

 commercial habits, prevent them from undertaking a fish- 

 ery for the purpose of foreign sale. Yet the coast abounds 

 in cod and ling, and may hereafter perhaps prove a source 

 of increased population ; if not of a greater disposable pro- 

 duce, and consequent increase of rent to the proprietor. 

 They possess at present but two boats, of which one only 

 is serviceable ; and their indifference to this kind of pro- 

 perty and the accommodation it affords, is marked by 

 their improvidently suffering the other to go to decay 

 011 the shore for want of a few trifling repairs. With 

 the effective one they make a voyage once or twice in 

 the year to the Long island, to dispose of that part of 

 their w r ool, feathers, and cheese, which is not required 

 for payment of rent ; purchasing with them such com- 

 modities as are wanted for the uses of their limited 

 establishments. The rocks which skirt the shore near 

 the village are smooth and inclined so as to admit of boats 

 being drawn up with great ease ; nor would it be a work 

 of much labour to build a pier for the security of the few 

 boats required for a fishery, should that be found necessary. 



The rent of the island is 40, which, according to the 

 present average of Highland farms, and including the 

 value of the sea fowl, is a very low rate. It is paid in 

 feathers, the produce of the innumerable birds that fre- 

 quent its cliffs to breed; and which form at the same 



