Mr Scut-SJdrcing on the Nahtral History of Islciy. 71 



20,000 inliabitants ; it now contains only 8000; while every- 

 where one sees the traces of tillage where the plough has now 

 given place to the sheep-walk. But if corn could be got 

 cheaper from our own colonies, why should it not be brought 

 from thence ? The people, on going to our towns at home, or 

 colonies abroad, at once rise in the social scale. At home, 

 they lived in dark, dismal, ruinous hovels, standing in the 

 midst of lakes of sewage and filth unutterable. They seemed 

 lazy, listless, hopeless, and helpless in their native sties — for 

 he could not call them houses — ^but transplant them, and 

 teach them to speak a civilised language, and they quickly 

 showed they were every whit as good in sinew and brain as 

 any of their fellow-subjects. Let sentimentalists say what 

 they liked, the Gaelic language was mainly responsible for 

 this state of matters, and its extinction as a spoken tongue 

 was a consummation devoutly to be wished. With all 

 deference to Professor Blackie, and without any reference to 

 the establishment of a Celtic chair, as an aid to philological 

 research, we had here a people speaking nothing but Gaelic, 

 and whom we could not instruct, because we could not speak 

 their language. 



As regarded animals in general, there were naturally few 

 species in a small island, and the fox, badger, wild-cat, martin, 

 polecat, hedgehog, mole, and squirrel were all wanting. 

 Neither were there any weasels, which was the more remark- 

 able as the stoat was only too abundant. Most of the other 

 quadrupeds of Britain were present in Islay. 



As regarded birds, all the varieties of game were plentiful 

 except the capercailzie and the ptarmigan. It had been said 

 that the pheasant could not really exist in a thoroughly wild 

 state in Scotland, as it required grain in continued winter 

 storms ; but in Islay the pheasant throve without grain, and 

 was found on the wildest moors and mosses, living on wild 

 seeds and insects. There had never been grouse disease in 

 Islay, and it was to be remarked that the heather, which 

 forms almost the entire food of the grouse, is also most healthy 

 and vigorous. The birds were very tame and not given to 

 packing ; they are also rarely seen in stubble. Mx Skirving 

 ridiculed as absurd the idea that grouse disease had been 



