ページの画像
PDF
ePub

feem highly to merit the attention of the inquifitive.

the ocean,

ALL the territories belonging to the commonwealth of St. Kilda, are no more than three small islands and five naked rocks. The principal ifland, together with the reft, lies in of old called the Deucaledonian. Its latitude I take to be about 58 degrees and 30 minutes. The length of the whole island is at least three English miles, from eaft to weft; and its breadth from fouth to north, not lefs than two.- -Its whole circumference is faced with an inacceffible barrier of rocks, two places only excepted; one to the north west, of which afterwards, and the other to the fouth eaft.

The hand of nature, has divided St. Kilda into four diftin&t parts. These are separated from one another by five hills, which are to the fea-fide faced with frightful precipices; the smallest of which would deeply engage the attention of a fpectator any where else. The three that lye towards the fouth and weft carry names, which, like those of almoft every place in the Highlands, very juftly exprefs their fituation, or the appearance they make to the eye. That at the greatest distance from thefe is called Oftrivaill, a compound word, partly Gothic and partly Galic; which fignifies the Eaftern mount. But the fifth, which rifes gradually from the head of the bay, is without the smalleft exaggeration, a real prodigy in its kind, and may perhaps not unjustly be ftiled the Teneriffe of Britain. The name of it is Conagra.

The top of this enormous mass of matter commands a very extenfive prospect. In a clear day, if the weather be settled, all the Long Iland, that is to fay, a tract of land

and fea, more than a hundred and forty miles in length, may be seen from it. But the moft ftriking circumftance about this great and wonderful object, is the figure it makes on the north-fide; there it hangs over the deep in a most frightful manner. A view of it from the fea fills a man with astonishment, and a look over it from above ftrikes him with horror. Most of the crew were fo terrified that they would not venture to gratify their curiosity in this refpect, till the natives took hold of their heels as they lay flat to look over it; yet a St. Kildian will stand or fit on the very brink of this ftupendous precipice, with the most careless indifference. I made a shift to take its height with fome degree of exactness, and found it no less than nine hundred fathoms.-Had I never feen this immenfe mass, I fhould very probably dispute the credibility of the account now given, juft as much as any one else may do, after perusing this account.

The hills of St. Kilda are, near their tops, mostly naked, being either covered with loofe mouldering ftones, or poorly clad with fome small scattered tufts of a fhort kind of heath. It is far from being matter of wonder, that the tops of high mountains, and more especially in the Highlands of Scotland, fhould be deftitute of grafs. Great tempefts of wind and rain, to fay nothing of thunder and earthquakes, muft very naturally, in a courfe of ages, carry away immenfe quantities of earth from them, and the acceffion of new matter which they receive, cannot be very confiderable.-The lower grounds, at the foot of the mountains, will be rifing up from year to year; and in fact we fee that these top undergo veryremarkable changes.

In the turf-pits dug there, a prodigious number of trees, almoft entire, are frequently found, which must have been buried in thefe places, after having been killed or plucked away from their roots, by the vaft quantities of earth which had been washed away from off the faces of the hills above. This, and other accidental circumstances, confidered, it is poffible enough that many of thofe mountains in different places, which now make fo dreary an appearance, may have been once fome of the most beautiful objects in the countries where they ftand; that is, rich in grafs, and clad with a variety of trees.-Certain it is, that men who have attained to a great age, have in this, and many other countries, feen extraordinary changes wrought on fome hills, and on the grounds adjoining to them.

The ground of St. Kilda, like much the greatest part of that over all the Highlands, is much better calculated for pafture than tillage. -Reftrained by idleness, a fault or vice much more pardonable here than in any other part of Great Britain, or difcouraged by the form of government under which they live, the people of this island study to rear up sheep, and to kill wildfowl, much more than to engage deeply in the more toilfome bufinefs of husbandry.

In the lower grounds are many excellent plots of grafs, which tho' generally fhort, is very close. That in the valley on the north-west fide of the island is peculiarly fine. This delightful valley is called, from an Amazon very famous in the traditions of the island, and whofe houfe, or diary of stone, is ftill extant, The Female Warrior's Glen. A rivulet runs through the middle of it, and

difcharges itself into the fea, near the fmall creek they call Camper, or the Crooked Landing-place, where the people make a fhift to put in, if under an unavoidable neceffity of making fo defperate an experiment, or if the fea be quite fmooth. Above this winding fort of creek, in the delightful valley juft now mentioned, are fome choice fpots of ground, where one may fee intermixed with the more common kinds of grafs, a great and beautiful variety of the richest plants, clover, white and red; daifies, crowfoot, dandelion, and plantains of every fort. As fome things are peculiar to almoft every place, as well as clime, it is probable there may be plants in this, every way ftrange, land, which are not the growth of any other foil.

Near the Camper is a moft remarkable beautified fpot, covered all over with a moft exquifitely fine kind of forrel. It is by far the most delicious I ever tafted; having a moft agreeable fort of poignancy, tempered with mildness enough to correct its acrimony.

The cattle of St. Kilda feed most luxuriously during the fummer feafon, on the plots of grafs now defcribed; and here they yield, it may be naturally expected, more than ordinary quantities of milk. I had occafion to know the quality of it. The cream it gives is fo lufcious, or rather fo ftrong, that fome of my people fickened upon drinking it.

All the ground hitherto cultivated in St. Kilda lies round the village. The foil is thin, full of gravel, and of confequence very fharp.--Origi nally it was covered and lined with a vatt number of ftones, which have been all cleared away by the inhabitants in fome former period. All the arable land is divided out into a

great

great many unequal plots, and every one of these is in a manner inclosed and kept invariably within the fame bounds, by the help of the ftones just now mentioned. These ferve for boundaries, and are not to be removed or any how violated, any more than those were by the antient Romans, which their ancestors had dedicated to their god, Terminus. Hence it is, that a St. Kildian will find it impoffible, however avaricious or cunning he may be, to hurt his neighbour, by encroaching on his farm in this way. And as the feveral plots, though very numerous, have every one of them, the smallest as well as the largeft, a diftinction by which it is difcriminated from all the reft; the whole body of the people may in a ftormy day affemble together in one place, and without any difficulty divide all their ground at a fire-fide, without perambulating or taking a furvey of it; and this in fact they frequently do.

The foil around the village, tho' naturally poor, is rendered extremely fertile, by the fingular induftry of very judicious hufbandmen; thefe prepare and manure every inch of their ground, so as to convert it into a kind of garden. All the inftruments of agriculture they ufe, or indeed require, according to their fyfem, are a spade, a mall, and a rake or harrow. After turning up the ground with the spade, they rake or harrow it very carefully, removing every small stone, every noxious root or growing weed that falls in their way, and pound down every stiff clod into duft. As foon as this operation is over, they fow their little fields, ftrewing them over with a valuable kind of manure, of which afterwards. I fay with this choice fort of manure, if they intend to raise a crop

of barley; and with that of the or dinary kind, if a crop of oats. This done, they harrow them over again, and leave them in the hands of Providence, to speak in their own ftile, with a fettled perfuafion that their honeft induftry will be amply rewarded, unless God fhall curfe the land for the punishment of their fins.

It is certain that a fmall number of acres well-prepared in St. Kilda, in this manner, will yield more profit to the hufbandman than a much greater number when roughly handled in a hurry, as is the cafe in the other Weftern 1fles. The people of St. Kilda fow and reap very early, I mean, earlier than any of their neighbours on the Weftern coaft of Scotland. The foil, I have already remarked, is naturally sharp and not fpungy. The heat of the fun reflected from the hills and rocks into a low valley facing the SouthEaft, muft in the fummer time be quite intense; and however rainy the climate is, the corn muft, for thefe reafons, grow very fa and ripen early.

The harveft is commonly over in this place before the beginning of September; and fhould it fall ou otherwife, the whole crop will be al moft deftroyed by the equinoctia ftorms.-All the iflanders on th western coaft, have great reafon t dread the fury of autumnal tem pefts. Thefe, together with the ex ceffive quantities of rain they have generally, throughout feven or eigh months of the year, are undoubted the moft difadvantageous and u happy circumstances of their live The St. Kildians have more than equal portion of this fore evil.

Barley and oats are the only for of grain known at St. Kilda, nor de it seem calculated for any oth

Fi

1

A SEPTIMIUS SEVERUS at ROME

« 前へ次へ »