104 IMPERFECT ROADS. 



agreement was made to run a coach with six horses 

 between Edinburgh and Glasgow, forty-four miles, 

 the double journey to be made in six days, and the 

 common carrier occupied a fortnight in journeying 

 to and from Selkirk and Edinburgh, a distance of 

 thirty-eight miles. 19 If such were the roads in the 

 more cultivated districts, communication must have 

 been exceeding difficult in the Highlands. There, 

 agriculture was neglected, the circumstances of the 

 climate, soil, and disposition of the people were 

 unfavorable ; and in 1787 even, the imperfect infant 

 state of the agriculture* may be inferred, by the 

 coast inhabitants or those of the isles obtaining a 

 greater part of their subsistence by fishing, while 

 the more inland clans depended chiefly on their cat- 

 tle and flocks. In 1714, in the island of Stroma, in 

 Caithness, there was but one small plough. 21 In 

 1799 the roads in many places did not pass by a 

 single village, house, hut, or inhabitant, for fifteen 

 or twenty miles. 22 



The influence of these two states of affairs in the 

 Highlands and Lowlands are seen in the cattle. In 

 the more nomadic state of the Highlands we find but 

 one style of cattle, the Highlanders, 23 animals of 

 strong individuality, varying among themselves ac- 

 cording to the luxuriance of the pastures and the 

 effect of climate, from the diminutive Shetland, the 

 ordinary West Highlander, North Highlander, and 

 the Runts, to the well-formed Argyleshire. 



Enc. Brit, xix, 807. 21 Ibid. vol. i, p. 128. 



20 Prize Essays H. Soc. 1st ser. vol. i, p. 129. 22 Ibid., i, cxiii. 

 23 Youatt and Martin on Cattle, passim. 



