$72 "On Coinmerce. 



tion, (which might easily be done,) but pass, on to the 

 Highlands of Scotland. This is not a small spot <||tached from 

 the rest of the world, but a large district above 200 miles in 

 length, besides the very numerous islands which stretch 

 along the west and northern shores of Scotland, and some 

 of them of very considerable extent : — the island of Lewis 

 is 50 miles long and 30 broad ; Sky is not much inferior ; 

 and Mull is a large island. The general appearance of the 

 main land, as well as the islands, is a constant succession 

 of rocks and mountains ; the lower grounds are very much 

 covered with black peat, or moss and heath, which in 

 Scotland is called heather: the inhabitants, with a very few 

 exception;;, live in huts (for houses they cannot be called) 

 without either window or chimney. I will not stop to enu- 

 merate the many distresses to which they are liable; suffice 

 it to sav, the privations they suffer are often great in the ex- 

 treme, vet their attachment to the soil is stronger than that 

 of any people I have ever had intercourse with : nothing but 

 force or the most pressing wants will induce a Highlander to 

 leave his country. Nor can his ignorance of more pleasant 

 and much more comfortable situations be argued as the 

 cause of his attachment : — the whole eastern coast of Scot- 

 land is in a state of very considerable improvement; the 

 inns on all the principal roads are good ; agriculture is in a 

 state of great forwardness. It is, however, needless hereto 

 give a particular description of the country, any further than 

 to point out that the difference between the eastern and 

 western coasts of Scotland is great beyond all conception, 

 but to those who have visited both districts : as the one runs 

 close parallel to the other, the Highlander has constant op- 

 portunities of seeing those more favoured situations; yet he 

 prefers his bleak mountains and smoky hut, to the fine cul- 

 tivated fields and comfortable houses of the Low Countries. 



Upon the whole, as far as I have experienced, as well as 

 from the information of others, I am clearly of opinion, 

 that the inhabitants of the more barren parts of this world 

 are more attached to their situation than the people who live 

 where Nature is mueh more bountiful. I will not at present 

 attempt to account for this propensity; I only state the fact 



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