Nature and Art, December 1, 18(56. 
BAEEA, IN THE OUTEE HEBRIDES. 
195 
In passing through South Uist, some parts of it 
appeared to us to be capable of cultivation, whilst 
others presented expanses of black peat and black 
ponds, having a most dreary and depressing effect. 
The parts round the slopes of mounts Heckla and 
Benmore, are especially rugged and dreary. Heckla 
is marked in our travelling map as 1,992 feet high, 
Benmore as 2,038 feet. The people seem to be 
much the same as in Lewis and Harris. But at 
and about Grogerry, where the steward of the 
proprietor lives (who gives visitors a hospitable 
welcome, and who has two very pretty daughters), 
the country was nicely cultivated, and after Barra 
and some other islands presented to us a cheerful 
appearance. 
And now we come to Barra. The 'parish of 
Barra is perhaps the most extraordinary in the 
United Kingdom. The people cannot all get to 
the priest, and if he were to visit all his flock, 
scattered as they are on so many small islands, he 
might be able to visit each place once a year. The 
parish consists of Barra Island Proper, and the 
islands of Watersea, Sandrera, Mingala, Pabba, and 
Barra Head Islands, besides islets and rocks in- 
numerable. The length of Barra Island is twelve 
miles, and the breadth varies from three to six 
miles. The length of the entire parish is twenty- 
four miles. The population is about 2,300, of 
whom. 300 are Protestants, and 2,000 Catholics. 
Colonel Gordon is proprietor. 
After this catalogue of the islands, we will 
endeavour to convey our impressions of the general 
aspect of the whole group. They are rugged, bleak, 
poor, and the atmosphere is misty, with the 
hill-sides and valleys generally sprinkled thickly 
with granite boulders. Where the rocks are covered, 
the covei'ing consists either of sand or peat-moss. 
The parts covered with peat-moss have a dull, heavy, 
black appearance, and the shallow lakes, or ponds, 
and sluggish ditches, reflecting the blackness of the 
peat, look like ink, and add to the general depres- 
sing effect. The constant visitors to these fields 
are the “ Hoodie ” crows. They are large birds, 
with bodies much the colour of a dirty blue pigeon, 
with black head and wings, and black feathers half 
way down the neck. They have a very melan- 
choly look, and when walking about the black peat 
remind one of undertakers’ men in a cemetery. 
These fields, cut up for fuel, look something 
like black brick-fields. The peat in bricks is 
arranged in stacks, or strewn about and left to 
dry. 
In the sandy parts the sand drifts in large masses, 
and is the crofter’s greatest enemy. The drift in 
some places will cover the surface of the grass for 
many feet thick in one night. The crofters do 
what they can to keep the surface level and un- 
broken, so that the sand may not be exposed to the 
winds, and for this purpose it is covered where 
possible with “ bent,” or coarse grass. The soil in 
all cases, whether sand or peat, gives a very scanty 
crop, unless well manured with lime or sea weed. 
Potatoes seem to be the chief thing cultivated. 
Sheep feed on the small grass that grows freely on 
the hill-sides, and Scotch cattle are raised in some 
numbers. In most of the islands there is grouse, 
and in all, plenty of wild fowl. The sportsman 
can always find rabbits, otters, woodcock, moor- 
fowl, wild duck, <fec., and we noticed amongst the 
rocks hr the bays, seals in abundance. 
The tenant farmers of the Hebrides are like the 
same classes elsewhere ; but the lowest class, the 
“ crofters ” and “ cottars,” as they are called, differ 
from their own class in England to a degree that 
is difficult to believe even after having seen it. 
The deputation of the Highland Relief Committee, 
who visited these islands in 1849, reported as to 
their condition in the words given below ; and we 
would rather, in a case like the present, use the 
words of the bonnie Scots themselves, than our 
own. Our words might be open to misconstruc- 
tion, and in any case they might be attributed to 
prejudice ; but the words of the Highland Relief 
Committee cannot be objected to as unfair. They 
are as follows : — 
“ We regretted to see that the crofters and small tenants 
were, for the most part, huddled and crowded together in 
miserable hamlets ; that their dwellings were, with one or 
two exceptions, of a wretched kind, filthy in the extreme, 
most of the people being under the same roof, and on the 
same floor as the cattle ; and, worse still, the manure being 
gathered and kept in the houses till it requires to be laid on 
the ground.” 
We confirm this from our own observation, and 
can add that most of the hovels abound with 
uncomfortable parasites, and are contiguous to 
stagnant pools, tainted with .animal refuse, around, 
in, and about which the half-naked and half-starved 
children “ play.” 
Having by this time conveyed a general, and pro- 
bably a most uncomfortable, idea of the whole group, 
we will proceed to sjjeak particularly of Barra 
parish — the place to which we were specially de- 
puted, and in which we spent most of our time. 
Many things we have written about this parish are, 
doubtless, applicable to the whole group ; but, as 
our attention was concentrated on Barra parish, and 
as we specially observed and noted the habits and 
manners of the people there, what further we have 
to say about the Outer Hebrides, we will say in 
connection with it. 
The western shores of these islands just catch the 
tail of the Gulf stream. The climate is therefore 
not so cold as might be expected from the latitude ; 
but the islands, especially those to the south, are 
wet to a degree equally astonishing and uncomfort- 
able. The natives must be, and really are, am- 
phibious. The swell from the Atlantic, which rolls 
in with enormous force and grandeur, soon breaks 
up any vessel that may come ashore on the western 
side. 
The coast-line generally is bleak and savage- 
looking granite, with a few very fine sandy bays. 
There is not a single tree or shrub in the Avhole of 
Barra Island. The group of islands forms a sort of 
outlying breakwater. On it are continually washed 
ashore curious Indian carvings and articles from 
the coasts of America, and on it are stranded derelict 
