48 HISTORY OF THE OUTER HEBRIDES. 



help was freely given to the islanders to tide over their 

 misfortunes. The proprietor of Lewis, by the energy and 

 public spirit which he displayed during that trying period, 

 well deserved the recognition which his services received at 

 the hands of the Crown, in 1851, when he was created 

 a baronet of the United Kingdom. The improvements 

 effected by Sir James Matheson in Lewis, at a cost of 

 ^240,000, increased the prosperity of the people ; or, to 

 put it in a negative and more correct form, they served 

 to decrease their poverty. If the value of the estate was 

 coincidently appreciated by the improvements, tie result 

 was a combination of mutual benefit which is onK too rare 

 in the history of the Hebrides. Had the proprietor's great 

 scheme of drainage, under the direction of Mr. James Smith 

 of Deanston, met with the permanent success vhich was 

 anticipated, the face of Lewis would have been changed. 

 But although the greatest authority on drainage of his day 

 failed to make " another Carse of Gowrie " of the bogs he 

 had undertaken to reclaim, it is not beyond the bounds of 

 possibility that modern science may yet succeec in making 

 these wildernesses blossom like the rose. 



The advent of kelp to the Outer Hebrides was an event 

 of the greatest economic importance. A state of fictitious 

 prosperity was created, which appeared for a lime to have 

 solved the problem of poverty. As with tie potato, so 

 with kelp, a knowledge of its manufacture wa* first brought 

 from Ireland to Uist by Macdonald of Boisdale (or, accord- 

 ing to other accounts, by Macdonald of Baleshare). Since 

 1722, kelp had been made in the Orkneys, ind it was first 

 manufactured in North Uist in 1735, an Irishman named 

 Roderick Macdonald having been brought over by Bale- 

 share to instruct the people in its manufacure. In 1748, 

 it was first made in Harris, on the initiative of Macleod 

 of Bernera. The date of its introduction to Lewis is 

 unknown. The vicissitudes of the industry in the Long 

 Island were remarkable. The high- water mark was 

 reached at the commencement of the nineteenth century, 

 when as much as 22 per ton is said to have been paid, 



