24 
MEMOIR OR DR. WALKER. 
“ Stornoway, August 17, 1764. 
“ My Lord, — I received yesterday the favour of 
your lordship’s, and have taken this first oppor- 
tunity, since my last, to acquaint you with my 
progress. After leaving Isla, I proceeded to Jura, 
Oolonsay, Oronsay, Icolmkill, Mull, Coll, Tiree, 
Rum, Egg, and Canna ; after which I went through 
Barra, South and North Uist, Benbecula, Bemera, 
Valay, Pabbay, Ensay, and Harris, and arrived 
yesterday at this place. 
“ I have seen the most fertile lands I ever saw in 
my life, without cultivation; a people by nature 
the most acute and sagacious, perfectly idle ; the 
most valuable fisheries, without lines or nets ; and 
in every corner one of the finest harbours that ever 
nature formed, a beautiful though useless void, as 
inanimate and unfrequented as those of the Terra 
Australis. 
“ The only appearance of industry I have met 
with in the islands is at this place. They have for 
some time had a considerable fishery of cod and 
ling. Their greatest discouragement is the diffi- 
culty of procuring salt, and the hazard they run 
with salt-bonds. But that I hope will be removed 
in this comer by the erection of a custom-house, 
which was done yesterday. 
“ One of the most effectual encouragements of the 
fishery in the islands, and I think the easiest and 
cheapest that has yet occurred to me, would be 
<£ 1 000 worth of salt and casks laid up at one or 
two proper places, to be sold to the inhabitants at 
