MEMOIR OF DR. WALKER. 
23 
"Western Islands, with regard to tlieir moral and 
physical state and capabilities for those improve- 
ments which they were so anxious to promote ; and 
accordingly he received the appointment. He was 
at the same time requested by the Society for Pro- 
pagating Christian Knowledge to visit their stations 
and report upon the progress of their schools. Both 
of which objects he accomplished, much to the satis- 
faction of those who had employed him. 
The Report which he made to the Board of this 
journey, — which lasted seven months, during which 
he had traversed, by his own computation, a space 
of above three thousand miles by land and water, — 
relative to the then stato of agriculture, fisheries, 
and manufactures in those, at that time, almost 
unknown regions, with an ample detail of the best 
means for their improvement, as suggested by the 
nature of the country and its local advantages, was 
esteemed highly interesting and important, but was 
not printed by the Commissioners. It was, how- 
ever, found, after his death, among his papers, new 
modelled, and published by his friend Charles 
Stewart, printer (himself favourably known as the 
author of “ Elements of the Natural History of the 
Animal Kingdom”), under the title of “ An Econo- 
mical History of the Hebrides,” 2 vols. 8vo. 
Although there has been a great and beneficial 
alteration in the state of the Hebrides since the days 
when this inspection took place, yet the following 
letter which he addressed to Lord Karnes from the 
isle of Lewes is not without interest. 
