SOCIAL LIFE IN HARRIS 
19 
families, visitors always being welcomed, however 
unexpected. It was not unusual to prolong a visit 
over several days at a time, to the mutual enjoy¬ 
ment of both visitors and visited. To young 
MacGillivray this social life was very congenial. 
He entered fully into it, and derived no little 
benefit and enjoyment from it. Again and again, 
however, the conviction came home to him that 
his time and his mind were being too much 
diverted from the main purpose of his visit_ 
the prosecution of his natural science pursuits; 
and again and again he formed and recorded 
in his journal strict resolutions with a view to 
amendment, for the carrying out of which, how¬ 
ever, the social attractions always proved too 
strong. 
But his time was by no means wasted during 
the visit, which was prolonged, as appears from the 
journal, to 1st May 1818. He did much in the 
course of his walks and excursions throughout 
Harris and the neighbouring islands to extend his 
knowledge of botany and zoology, the two branches 
of science in which he was then most interested. 
He also did something to geology. He never went 
out without his gun, and lost no opportunity of 
obtaining specimens of birds for examination. 
Nothing of interest in connection with his scientific 
pursuits escaped his attention, and the daily record 
of knowledge gained was always carefully entered 
in his journal. He felt, however, the want of 
scientific books, Smith's Flora Britannica and De 
