but what the law permits is yet continued, and Maclean of Col now educates the heir of Maclonich.

There fill remains in the islands, though it is paffing fast away, the custom of fosterage. A Laird, a man of wealth and eminence, fends his child, either male or female, to a tackfman, or tenant, to be foftered. It is not always his own tenant, but fome diftant friend that obtains this honour; for an honour fuch a truft is reafonably thought. The terms of fofterage feem to vary in different islands. In Mull the father fends with his child a certain number of cows, to which the fame number is added by the fofterer. The father appropriates a proportionable extent of ground, without rent, for their paiturage. If every cow brings a calf, half belongs to the fofterer, and half to the child; but if there be only one calf between two cows, it is thechild's, and when the childreturns to the parents, it is accompanied by all the cows given, both by the father and by the fofterer, with half of the increase of the ftock by propagation. These beasts are confidered as a portion, and called Macalive cattle, of which the father has the produce, but is fuppo fed not to have the full property, but to owe the fame number to the child, as a portion to the daughter, or a stock for the fon.

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Children continue with the fofterer perhaps fix years, and cannot, where this is the practice, be confidered

confidered as burdenfome. The fofterer, if he gives four cows, receives likewife four, and has, while the child continues with him, grafs for eight without rent, with half the calves, and all the milk, for which he pays only four cows when he difmiffes his Dalt, for that is the name for a foster child.

Fofterage is, I believe, fometimes performed upen more liberal terms. Our friend, the. young Laird of Col, was foftered by Macfweyn of Griffirol. Macfweyn then lived a tenant to Sir James Macdonald in the Ifle of Sky; and therefore Col, whether he fent him cattle or not, could grant him no land. The Dalt, however, at his return, brought back a confiderable number of Macalive attle, and of the friendship fo formed there have been good effects. When Macdonald raifed his, rents, Macfweyn was. like other, tenants, difcontented, and, refigning his farm, removed from Sky to Col, and was established at Griffipol.

Thefe obfervations we made by favour of the. contrary wind that drove us to Col, an ifland not often visited, for there is not much to amufe curiofity, or to attract avarice.

The ground has been hitherto, I believe, ufed chiefly for pafturage. In a district, fuch as the eye can command, there is a general herdfinan, who knows all the cattle of the neighbourhood, and whofe ftation is upon a hill, from which he furveys the lower grounds; and if one man's cattle invade.

another's grafs, drives them back to their ownborders. But other means of profit begin to be found; kelp is gathered and burnt, and floops are loaded with the concreted afhes. Cultivation is likely to be improved by the skill and encouragement of the prefent heir, and the inhabitants of thofe obfcure vallies will partake of the general progrefs of life.

The rents of the parts which belong to the Duke of Argyll, have been raised from fifty-five to one hundred and five pounds, whether from the land or the fea I cannot tell. The bounties of the fea have lately been fo great, that a farm in Southuift has risen in ten years from a rent of thirty pounds to one hundred and eighty.

He who lives in Col, and finds himfelf condemned to folitary meals, and incommunicable reflection, will find the usefulness of that middle order of tackfmen, which fome who applaud their own wifdom are wishing to destroy. Without intelligence man is not focial, he is only gregarious; and little intelligence will there be, where all are conAtrained to daily labour, and every mind muft wait upon the hand.

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After having liftened for fome days to the tempeft, and wandered about the island till our curiofity was fatisfied, we began to think of our departure. To leave Col in October was not very easy. We however found a loop which lay on the coast to carry kelp; and for a price which we thought

levied upon our neceffities, the mafter agreed to carry us to Mull, whence we might readily pafs back to Scotland.

MUL L.

As we were to catch the first favourable breath, we fpent the night not very elegantly, nor pleafantly in the veffel, and were landed next day at Tabor Morar, a port in Mull, which appears to an unexperienced eye formed for the fecurity of fhips; for its mouth is closed by a fmall ifland, which admits them through narrow channels into a bafon fufficiently capacious. They are indeed fafe from the fea, but there is a hollow between the mountains through which the wind iffues from the land with very mischievous violence.

There was no danger while we were there, and we found feveral other veffels at anchor fo that the port had a very commercial appear

ance...

The young Laird of Col, who had determined not to let us lofe his company, while there was any difficulty remaining, came over with us. His influence foon appeared; for he procured us horfes, and conducted us to the houfe of Doctor Maclean, where we found very kind entertainment, and very pleafing converfation. Mifs Maclean, who was born, and had been bred at Glafgow, having removed

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removed with her father to Mull, added to other qualifications, a great knowledge of the Earse language, which she had not learned in her childhood, but gained by study, and was the only interpreter of the Earfe poetry that I could ever find.

The Isle of Mull is perhaps in extent the third of the Hebrides. It is not broken by waters, nor fhot into promontories, but is a folid and compact mafs, of breadth nearly equal to its length. Of the dim enfions of the larger iflands, there is no knowledge approaching to exactnefs. I am willing to eftimate it as containing about three hundred fquare miles.

Mull had fuffered like Sky by the black winter of feventy-one, in which, contrary to all experience, a continued froft detained the fnow for eight weeks upon the ground. Against a calamity never known, no provifion had been made, and the people could only pine in helplefs mifery. One tenant was mentioned, whofe cattle perished to the value of three hundred pounds; a lofs which probably more than the life of man is neceffary to repair. In countries like these, the descriptions of famine become intelligible. Where by vigorous and artful cultivation of a foil naturally fertile, there is commonly a fuperfluous growth both of grain and grafs; where the fields are crowded with cattle; and where every hand is able to attract wealth from a distance, by making something that promotes ease, or gratifies vanity, a dear year pro

duces