( 4S ) 



dried cow-dung. In some respects this is perhaps 

 hardly to be regretted. The time spent in the High- 

 lands in cutting, drying, stacking, and finally carry- 

 ing peats, is so great, and the uncertainty of the pro- 

 duce arising from wet seasons is also so great, that 

 peats are often in reality the dearest of all possible 

 fuels, except to people whose time cannot be more 

 profitably employed ; and it may therefore be ulti- 

 mately an advantage that the people should feel the 

 true cost of living on the Island, as compared with 

 the resources which it affords in the employment of 

 labour. 

 Management of the Having now explained the general principles on 

 ^u^ebe^^aein ^]^i(>}^ J J^^ave proceeded in the management of 

 Tyree, I may farther inform the Commission that I 

 have acted on precisely the same principles in 

 respect to that part of Mull, including lona, on 

 which my property had any crofter tenants. I may 

 add, however, that as regards the Eoss of Mull espe- 

 cially, the change for the better has been even more 

 marked than in Tyree. But this difference is due to 

 the fact that in the Eoss of Mull I started from a still 

 worse condition. The soil and the climate are both 

 inferior to those of Tyree. They are much less adapted 

 to small crofts. Consequently the pauperising results 

 of subdivision were far more conspicuous. In 1846 

 and the few following years, the aspect of the popu- 

 lation, and of the numerous wretched hovels erected 

 by squatting cottars along the roadsides, was most 

 painful. It resembled nothing so much as the de- 

 scriptions given of the poorest parts of the West of 

 Ireland. The condition of most of the crofters was 

 almost indigent. No less than 102 of them had sub- 



