of Col, a man of middle ftature, informed me that he once fhot an otter, of which the tail reached the ground, when he held up the head to a level with his own. I expected the otter to have a foot particularly formed for the art of fwimming; but upon examination, I did not find it differing much from that of a fpaniel. As he preys in the fea, he does little vifible mifchief, and is killed only for his fur. White otters are fometimes feen.

In Raafay they might have hares and rabbits, for they have no foxes. Some depredations, fuch as were never made before, have caufed a fufpicion that a fox has been lately landed in the Ifland by spite or wantonnefs. This imaginary ftranger has never yet been feen, and therefore, perhaps, the mischief was done by fome other animal. It is not likely that a creature fo ungentle, whofe head could have been fold in Sky for a guinea, fhould be kept alive

only

only to gratify the malice of fending him to prey upon a neighbour: and the paffage from Sky is wider than a fox would venture to fwim, unless he were chafed by dogs into the fea, and perhaps than his ftrength would enable him to crofs. How beafts of prey came into any iflands is not eafy to guess. In cold countries they take advantage of hard winters, and travel over the ice but this is a very fcanty folution; for they are found where they have no dif coverable means of coming.

The corn of this ifland is but little. I faw the harveft of a fmall field. The women reaped the corn, and the men bound up the fheaves. The ftrokes of the fickle were timed by the modulation of the harveft fong, in which all their voices were united. They accompany in the Highlands every action, which can be done in equal time, with an appropriated ftrain, which has, they fay, not much meaning; but

its

its effects are regularity and cheerfulness. The ancient proceleufmatick fong, by which the rowers of gallies were animated, may be fuppofed to have been of this kind. There is now an oar-fong used by the He bridians,

The ground of Raafay feems fitter for cattle than for corn, and of black cattle I fuppofe the number is very great. The Laird himself keeps a herd of four hundred, one hundred of which are annually fold. Of an extenfive domain, which he holds in his own hands, he confiders the fale of cattle as repaying him the rent, and fupports the plenty of a very liberal table with the remaining product.

Raafay is fuppofed to have been very long inhabited. On one fide of it they show caves, into which the rude nations of the firft ages retreated from the weather. These

dreary vaults might have had other uses.

There

There is ftill a cavity near the houfe called the oar-cave, in which the feamen, after one of these piratical expeditions, which in rougher times were very frequent, used, as tradition tells, to hide their oars. This hollow was near the fea, that nothing fo neceffary might be far to be fetched; and it was fecret, that enemies, if they landed, could find nothing. Yet it is not very evident of what ufe it was to hide their oars from thofe, who, if they were masters of the coaft, could take away their boats.

A proof much stronger of the distance at which the first poffeffors of this island lived from the present time,is afforded by the stone heads of arrows which are very frequently picked up. The people call them Elfbolts, and believe that the fairies shoot them at the cattle. They nearly refemble those which Mr. Banks has lately brought from the favage countries in the Pacifick Ocean,

and

and must have been made by a nation to which the use of metals was unknown.

The number of this little community has never been counted by its ruler, nor have I obtained any pofitive account, confiftent with the refult of political computation. Not many years ago, the late Laird led out one hundred men upon a military expedition. The fixth part of a people is fuppofed capable of bearing arms: Raasay had therefore fix hundred inhabitants. But because it is not likely, that every man able to ferve in the field would follow the fummons, or that the chief would leave his lands totally defenceless, or take away all the hands qualified for labour, let it be fuppofed, that half as many might be permitted to stay at home. The whole number will then be nine hundred, or nine to a fquare mile; a degree of populoufnefs greater than thofe tracts of defolation can

often