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Notice regarding the Isles of St Hilda. 
in it, as in those favoured climes, where the fancy delights to 
roam. Hospitality is a virtue common to all the northern 
tribes, more especially in the ruder states of society ; and a belief 
in the protection of Providence, coupled with resignation to its 
awards, was found to be not less characteristic of the natives of 
Grimsey than of their Iceland neighbours. 
2. Isles of St Hilda. 
In Britain we have usually been led to imagine the lot of 
the inhabitants of St Kilda as peculiarly calculated to excite 
feelings of commiseration, and, indeed, in certain points of view, 
it is so ; but the privations of these people are so little compar- 
able to those of the inhabitants of Grimsey, that they may even, 
in many respects, afford a striking contrast. We have been 
accustomed to picture to ourselves — a solitary island in the At- 
lantic, the resort of sea-birds, surrounded by a tempestuous 
ocean, swept over by the cold blasts of the north, and drenched 
with the western rains, affording a hard-earned subsistence to a 
set of miserable wretches, wild as the birds of their native rocks, 
destitute of every comfort of life, and even barely supplied with 
its necessaries. But this representation is more poetical than 
true to nature ; and though some of its features are in a certain 
degree correct, those which regard the condition of the inhabit- 
ants of St Kilda are much overstrained. It would be needless 
to institute a methodical examination of the subject ; but it may 
be useful here to present a short account of the remote isles of St 
Kilda, which have at all times been considered as highly inte- 
resting, and to which, in this part of the country, the attention 
of the public has of late been more particularly directed. 
The Isles of St Kilda lie at a distance of about 50 miles to 
the NW. of the middle division of the Outer Hebrides, from 
which they are easily seen in clear weather, owing to their great 
height. There are two principal islands, Hirt and Boreray, si- 
tuate about 10 or 1 2 miles apart, and several smaller islands, 
or rocks, attached to them. Hirt is the only inhabited island, 
Boreray being too rugged and bare for the abode of man. 
These islands are referred to the Trap formation. Hirt, which 
is nearly three miles in diameter, rises to the height of about 
2000 feet, or more ; and Boreray is little inferior in altitude, 
