That causes very different from want of room may produce a general difpofition to feek another country is apparent from the prefent conduct of the Highlanders, who are in fome places ready to threaten a total feceffion. The numbers which have already gone, though like other numbers they may be magnified, are very great, and fuch as if they had gone together and agreed upon any certain fettlement, might have founded an independent government in the depths of the western continent. Nor are they only the lowest and most indigent; many men of confiderable wealth have taken with them their train of labourers and dependants; and if they continue the feudal scheme of polity, may establish new clans in the other hemisphere. That the immediate motives of their defertion must be imputed to their landlords, may be reafonably concluded, becaufe fome Lairds of more prudence and lefs rapacity have kept their vaffals undiminished. From Raafa only one man had been feduced, and at Col there was no wish to go away. The traveller who comes hither from more opulent countries, to fpeculate upon the remains of pastoral life, will not much wonder that a common common Highlander has no strong adherence to his native foil; for of animal enjoyments, or of phyfical good, he leaves nothing that he may not find again wherefoever he may be thrown. The habitations of men in the Hebrides may be diftinguished into huts and houses. By a house, I mean a building with one story over another; by a hut, a dwelling with only one floor. The Laird, who formerly lived in a castle, now lives in a houfe; fometimes fufficiently neat, but feldom very spacious or splendid. The Tacksmen and the Minifters have commonly houses. Wherever there is a house, the ftranger finds a welcome, and to the other evils of exterminating Tackfmen may be added the unavoidable ceffation of hofpitality, or the devo lution of too heavy a burden on the Minifters. Of the houses little can be faid. They are fmall, and by the neceffity of accumulating ftotes, where there are fo few opportunities of purchase, the rooms are very heterogeneously filled. With want of cleanliness it were ingratitude to reproach them. The fervants having been bred upon the naked earth, think every floor clean, and the quick fucceffion of guefts, perhaps not always over-elegant, does not allow much time for adjusting their apartments. Huts Huts are of many gradations; from murky dens, to commodious dwellings. The wall of a common hut is always built without mortar, by a skilful adaptation of loofe ftones. Sometimes perhaps a double wall of ftones is raised, and the intermediate space filled with earth. The air is thus completely excluded. Some walls are, I think, formed of turfs, held together by a wattle, or texture of twigs. Of the meanest huts, the first room is lighted by the entrance, and the fecond by the smokehole. The fire is ufually made in the middle. But there are huts, or dwellings, of only one ftory, inhabited by gentlemen, which have walls cemented with mortar, glafs windows, and boarded floors. Of these all have chimneys, and fome chimneys have grates. The house and the furniture are not always nicely fuited. We were driven once, by miffing a paffage, to the hut of a gentleman, where, after a very liberal fupper, when I was conducted to my chamber, I found an elegant bed of Indian cotton, fpread with fine sheets. The accommodation was flattering; I undressed myself, and felt my feet in the mire. The bed ftood ftood upon the bare earth, which a long courfe of rain had foftened to a puddle. In paftoral countries the condition of the lowest rank of people is fufficiently wretched. Among manufacturers, men that have no property may have art and industry, which make them neceffary, and therefore valuable. But where flocks and corn are the only wealth, there are always more hands than work, and of that work there is little in which skill and dexterity can be much diftinguished. He therefore who is born poor never can be rich. The fon merely occupies the place of the father, and life knows nothing of progreffion or advancement. The petty tenants, and labouring peasants, live in miferable cabins, which afford them little more than fhelter from the storms. The Boor of Norway is faid to make all his own utenfils. In the Hebrides, whatever might be their ingenuity, the want of wood leaves them no materials. They are probably content with fuch accommodations as ftones of different forms and fizes can afford them. Their food is not better than their lodging. They feldom tafte the flesh of land animals; for here are no markets. What each man eats is is from his own ftock. The great effect of money is to break property into fmall parts. In towns, he that has a fhilling may have a piece of meat; but where there is no commerce, no man can eat mutton but by killing a sheep. Fish in fair weather they need not want; but, I believe, man never lives long on fish, but by constraint; he will rather feed upon roots and berries. The only fewel of the Islands is peat. Their wood is all confumed, and coal they have not yet found. Peat is dug out of the marshes, from the depth of one foot to that of fix. That is accounted the best which is nearest the furface. It appears to be a mass of black earth held together by vegetable fibres. I know not whether the earth be bituminous, or whether the fibres be not the only combustible part; which, by heating the interpofed earth red hot, make a burning mafs. The heat is not very ftrong nor lafting. The afhes are yellowish, and in a large quantity. When they dig peat, they cut it into fquare pieces, and pile it up to dry befide the house. In fome places it has an offenfive fmell. It is like wood charked for the fmith. The common method of making peat fires, |