248 Mr. Macgillivray’s Account of the Outer Hebrides. 
&c. amounting to nearly twenty. The few trees that occur, are 
chiefly found in the beds of torrents, and in islands in lakes, as 
well as sometimes on the rocks of the interior. 
Perhaps the most singular feature in some of these islands, as in 
North Uist more particularly, is the astonishing number of lakes. 
In the eastern part of that island, one would be puzzled to deter- 
mine whether land or water predominated. This is equally the . 
case in the lower parts of South Uist, Benbecula, and Lewis, and 
even along the eastern coast of Harris, although in the latter dis- 
trict the ground is nowhere low to any great extent. Some of the 
lakes are of considerable dimensions. The largest is Loch Langa- 
vat in Lewis, which is upwards of ten miles in length, and singu- 
larly tortuous. But, contrary to all our ideas of lake scenery, the 
lakes of the Outer Hebrides, instead of giving beauty, add to the 
gloom of the landscape. Their sullen, dark brown, opaque waters, 
presenting the idea of unfathomable and mysterious depth, excite 
au undefined feeling of dread. No difference is in general exhibit- 
ed between their marginal vegetation and that of the surrounding 
heaths ; and the only remarkable appearances which they present 
in this respect, are a few stunted shrubs, some green islands which 
owe their verdure to the fertilizing effect of the excrements of sea- 
birds which nestle upon them, and the frequent patches of Nym- 
phea alba, and sometimes of Nuphar lutea, which are seen floating 
upon them, intermixed with carices, scirpi, and potamogetons. 
They are, however, abundantly stocked with excellent trout of num- 
berless varieties, among which some future ichthyologist will find 
a rich harvest. - m , 
Of runnihg water there is also abundance in all parts, although 
in summer the streams dwindle into very insignificant stripes ; and 
although springs are sufficiently numerous, they are rarely of large 
size. Many of them are chalybeate. Hardly any of the streams 
are so large as to deserve the name of rivers: yet by those which . 
attain any magnitude, although only periodically, salmon and sea- 
trout make their way to the lakes in great quantities. Many of 
them are abundantly stocked with pearl mussels, (unio elongata. ) 
The soil of the western side of these islands is greatly superior 
to that of the eastern, owing to the intermixture of sand ; and 
along the shores, where the soil is sandy, the vegetation exhibits 
the greatest luxuriance and diversity. In no parts of Britain, per- 
haps, are there so beautiful pastures as along the western coasts of 
the Outer Hebrides. But this beauty endures only for a few months, 
and from Octeber to June little else is to be seen than a dreary 
wilderness of drifting sand. 
The climate is subject to great variations. It is, however, gene- 
rally characterized by its great dampness. In every part of the 
range iron is covered with rust in a few days, and finer articles of 
wooden furniture, brought from foreign parts, invariably swell and 
warp. Spring commences about the end of March, when the first 
shoots of grass make their appearance in sheltered places, and the 
