London to John O 1 Groat's. 361 



Oxbow on the Connecticut, at "Wetliersfield, in Vermont, 

 or the great onion-growing Hat on the same river 

 at Wethersfield in Connecticut. These straths are 

 numerous in Scotland, and constitute the great pro- 

 ductive centres of the mountain sections. They are 

 generally cultivated to the highest perfection of agricul- 

 tural science and economy and are devoted mostly to 

 grain. As they are always walled in by bald-headed 

 mountains and lofty hills, cropped as high as man and 

 horse can climb with a plough and planted with firs 

 and larches beyond, they show beautifully to the eye, 

 and constitute, with these surroundings, the peculiar 

 charm of Scotch scenery. The term is always prefixed 

 to the name of the river, as Strathearn, Strathspey, &c. 

 I noticed on this day's walk the same singular habit 

 that struck me in the north part of Yorkshire ; that is, 

 of cutting inward upon the standing grain. Several 

 persons, frequently women and boys, follow the mowers, 

 and pick up the swath and bind it into sheaves, using 

 no rake at all in the process. So pertinaciously they 

 seem to adhere to this remarkable and awkward custom, 

 that I saw two mowers walk down a hill, a distance of 

 full a hundred rods, with their scythes under their arms, 

 in order to begin a new swath in the same way, four or 

 five men and women run n ing after them full tilt to 

 bind the grain as it i'ell ! Here \vas a loss of at least 



