five pounds. They go from the Islands very lean, and are not offered to the butcher, till they have been long fatted in English pastures. Of their black cattle, fome are without horns, called by the Scots humble cows, as we call a bee an humble bee, that wants a fting. Whether this difference be fpecific, or accidental, though we inquired with great diligence, we could not be informed. We are not very fure that the bull is ever without horns, though we have been told, that fuch bulls there are. What is produced by putting a horned and unhorned male and female together, no man has ever tried, that thought the result worthy of obfervation. Their horfes are, like their cows, of a moderate fize. I had no difficulty to mount myself commodiously by the favour of the gentlemen. I heard of very little cows in Barra, and very little horses in Rum, where perhaps no care is taken to prevent that diminution of fize, which muft always happen, where the greater and the less copulate promifcuoufly, and the young animal is reftrained from growth by penury of sustenance. The goat is the general inhabitant of the earth, complying with every difference of climate and of foil. The goats of the Hebrides are like F 5 others: others; nor did I hear any thing of their fheep, to be particularly remarked. In the penury of these malignant regions, nothing is left that can be converted to food. The goats and the sheep are milked like the cows. A fingle meal of a goat is a quart, and of a sheep a pint. Such at least was the account, which I could extract from thofe of whom I am not sure that they ever had inquired. The milk of goats is much thinner than that of cows, and that of fheep is much thicker. Sheeps milk is never eaten before it is boiled: as it is thick, it must be very liberal of curd, and the people of St. Kilda form it into small cheeses. The flags of the mountains are less than those of our parks, or forefts, perhaps not bigger than our fallow deer. Their flesh has no ranknefs, nor is inferiour in flavour to our common venifon. The roebuck I neither faw nor tafled. These are not countries for a regular chase. The deer are not driven with horns and hounds. A fportfman, with his gun in his hand, watches the animal, and when he has wounded him, traces him by the blood. They They have a race of brinded greyhounds, larger and stronger than those with which we course hares, and thofe are the only dogs used by them for the chase. Man is by the use of fire-arms so much an overmatch for other animals, that in all countries, where they are in use, the wild part of the creation fenfibly diminishes. There will probably not be long, either ftags or roe-bucks in the iflands. All the beafts of chafe would have been loft long ago in countries well inhabited, had they not been preserved by laws for the pleasure of the rich. There are in Sky neither rats nor mice, but the weafel is fo frequent, that he is heard in houses rattling behind chefts or beds, as rats in England. They probably owe to his predominance that they have no other vermin; for fince the great rat took poffeffion of this part of the world, fcarce a fhip can touch at any port, but some of his race are left behind. They have within these few years began to infeft the isle of Col, where being left by fome trading veffel, they have increased for want of weafels to oppofe them. The inhabitants of Sky, and of the other islands, which I have seen, are commonly of the middle ftature, with fewer among them very tall or or very fhort, than are feen in England, or perhaps, as their numbers are small, the chances of any deviation from the common measure are neceffarily few. The tallest men that I saw are In regions of bar among those of higher rank. renness and scarcity, the human race is hindered in its growth by the fame caufes as other animals. The ladies have as much beauty here as in other places, but bloom and softness are not to be expected among the lower claffes, whofe faces are exposed to the rudeness of the climate, and whofe features are fometimes contracted by want, and fometimes hardened, by the blafts. Supreme beauty is feldom found in cottages or work-fhops, even where no real hardships are fuffered. To expand the human face to its full perfection, it feems neceffary that the mind fhould co-operate by placidness of content, or consciousness of superiority. Their ftrength is proportionate to their fize, but they are accustomed to run upon rough ground, and therefore can with great agility skip over the bog, or clamber the mountain. For a campaign in the waftes of America, foldiers better qualified could not have been found. Having little work to do, they are not willing, nor perhaps able to endure a long continuance of manual labour, and are therefore confidered as habitually idle. Having Having never been fupplied with these accommodations, which life extensively diverfified with trades affords, they fupply their wants by very infufficient shifts, and endure many inconveniences, which a little attention would easily relieve. I have feen a horse carrying home the harvest on Under his tail was a stick for a crupper, held at the two ends by twifts of straw. Hemp will grow in their islands, and therefore ropes. may be had. If they wanted hemp, they might make better cordage of rushes, or perhaps of nettles, than of straw. a crate. Their method of life neither fecures them perpetual health, nor exposes them to any particu lar diseases. There are phyficians in the islands, who, I believe, all practise chirurgery, and all compound their own medicines. It is generally fuppofed, that life is longer in places where there are few opportunities of luxury; but I found no inftance here of extraordinary longevity. A cottager grows old over his oaten cakes, like a citizen at a turtle feaft. He is indeed feldom incommoded by corpulence. Poverty preferves him from finking under the burden of himself, but he escapes no other injury of time. Inftances of long life are often related, which those who hear them are more willing to credit than examine. To be told that any man has attained a hundred years, gives hope and comfort |