136 THE CRUISE OF THE BETSEY; OK, 



the furrowed patches on the slopes of the valleys, they rear- 

 ed herds of cattle and flocks of sheep, their number increased 

 to nearly five hundred souls, they enjoyed the average hap- 

 piness of human creatures in the present imperfect state of 

 being, they contributed their portion of hardy anc[ vigorous 

 manhood to the armies of the country, and a few of their 

 more adventurous spirits, impatient of the narrow bounds 

 which confined them, and a course of life little varied by 

 incident, emigrated to America. Then came the change of 

 system so general in the Highlands ; and the island lost all 

 its original inhabitants, on a wool and mutton speculation, 

 inhabitants, the descendants of men who had chased the deer 

 on its hills five hundred years before, and who, though they 

 recognised some wild island lord as their superior, and did 

 him service, had regarded the place as indisputably their own. 

 And now yet another change was on the eve of ensuing, and 

 the island was to return to its original state, as a home of 

 wild animals, where a few hunters from the mainland might 

 enjoy the chase for a month or two every twelvemonth, but 

 which could form no permanent place of human abode. Once 

 more, a strange and surely most melancholy cycle ! 



There was light enough left, as we reached the upper part 

 of Loch Scresort, to show us a shoal of small silver-coated 

 trout, leaping by scores at the effluence of the little stream 

 along which we had set out in the morning on our expedi- 

 tion. There was a net stretched across where the play was 

 thickest ; and we learned that the haul of the previous tide 

 had amounted to several hundreds. On reaching the Betsey, 

 we found a pail and basket laid against the companion-head, 

 the basket containing about two dozen small trout, the 

 minister's unsolicited teind of the t morning draught ; the pail 

 filled with razor-fish of great size. The people of my friend 

 are far from wealthy ; there is scarce any circulating medium 

 in Rum ; and the cottars in Eigg contrive barelyTnough to 



