duces only a comparative want, which is rather feen than felt, and which terminates commonly in no worse effect, than that of condemning the lower orders of the community to facrifice a little-lux- ury to convenience, or at moft, a little convenience. to neceffity.

..But where the climate is unkind, and the ground penurious, fo that the most fruitful years produce · only enough to maintain themfelves; where lifeunimproved and unadorned, fades into fomething little more than naked existence, and every one is bufy for himfelf, without any arts by which the pleasure of others may be increased; if to the daily burden of diftrefs any additional weight be added, nothing remains but to despair and die. In Mull the disappointment of a harveft, or a murrain among the cattle, cuts off the regular provision; and they who have no manufactures can purchase no part of the fuperfluities of other countries. The confequence of a bad feafon is here not fcarcity, but emptinefs; and they whofe plenty was barely a fupply of natural and prefent need, when that flender ftock fails, muft perifh with hunger...

All travel has its advantages, If the paffenger vifits better countries, he may learn to improve his own, and if fortune carries him to worfe, he may learn to enjoy it.

Mr Bofwell's curiofity ftrongly impelled him to furvey lona, or Icolmkill, which was to the early ages the great.school of theology, and is fuppofed

to have been the place of fepulture for the ancient kings. I, though lefs eager, did not oppose him.

That we might perform this expedition, it was neceffary to traverfe a great part of Mull. We paffed a day at Dr Maclean's, and could have been well contented to ftay longer. But Col provided: us horses, and we pursued our journey. This was a day of inconvenience, for the country is very rough, and my horfe was but little. We travelled many hours through a tract, black and barren, in which, however, there were the reliques of humanity; for we found a ruined chapel in our way.

It is natural, in traverfing this gloom of defolar tion, to inquire, whether fomething may not be done to give nature a more cheerful face, and whether thofe hills and moors that afford heath can not with a little care and labour bear fomething better. The first thought that occurs, is to cover them with trees, for that in many of these naked regions trees will grow, is evident, becaufe ftumps and roots are yet remaining; and the speculatist haftily proceeds to cenfure that negligence and lazinefs that has omitted for fo long a time fo eafy an improvement.

To drop feeds into the ground, and attend their growth, requires little labour and no fkill. He who remembers that all the woods by which the wants of man have been fupplied from the deluge

till now, were felf-fown, will not eafily be perfuaded to think all the art and preparation neceffary, which the Georgick writers prescribe to planters. Trees certainly have covered the earth with very little culture. They wave their tops among the rocks of Norway, and might thrive as well in the Highlands and Hebrides.

But there is a frightful interval between the feed and timber. He that calculates the growth of trees, has the unwelcome remembrance of the shortness of life driven hard upon him. He knows that he is doing what will never benefit himself; and when he rejoices to fee the ftem rife, is difpofed to repine that another fhall cut it down.

Plantation is naturally the employment of a mind unburdened with care, and vacant to futurity, fa turated with prefent good, and at leifure to derive gratification from the profpect of pofterity. He that pines with hunger, is in little care how others fhall be fed. The poor man is feldom ftudious to make his grandfon rich. It may be foon difcovered, why in a place, which hardly fupplies the crayings of neceffity, there has been little attention to the delights of fancy; and why diftant convenience is unregarded, where the thoughts are turned with inceffant folicitude upon every poffibility of immediate advantage.,

Neither is it quite fo eafy to raise large woods, as

may be conceived. Trees intended to produce timber must be kept ufelefs for a long time, inclof

ed

ed at an expence from which many will be difcouraged by the remoteness of the profit, and watched with that attention, which, in places where it is moft needed, will neither be given nor bought. That it cannot be plowed is evident; and if cattle be fuffered to graze upon it, they will devour the plants as faft as they rife. Even in coarfer coun. tries, where herds and flocks are not fed, not only the deer and the wild goats will browfe upon them, but the hare and rabbit. will nibble them. It is therefore reasonable to believe, what I do not remember any naturalift to have remarked, that there was a time when the world was very thinly. inhabited by beafts, as well as men, and that the woods had leisure to rife high before animals had bred numbers fufficient to intercept them..

Sir James Macdonald, in part of the waftes of his territory, fet or fowed trees, to the number, as I have been told, of feveral millions, expecting, doubtless, that they would grow up into future navies and cities; but for want of inclosure, and of that care which is always neceffary, and will hardly ever be taken, all his coft and labour have been. loft, and the ground is likely to continue an ufelefs heath.

Having not any experience of a journey in Mull, we had no doubt of reaching the fea by day-light, and therefore had not left Dr Maclean's very early. We travelled diligently enough, but found the country, for road there was none, very difficult to

pass.

pass. We were always ftruggling with fome obftruction or other, and our vexation was not balanced by any gratification of the eye or mind. We were now long enough acquainted with hills. and heath to have loft the emotion that they once raifed, whether pleafing or painful, and had our mind employed only on our own fatigue. We were however fure, under Col's protection, of efcaping all real evils. There was no houfe in Mull to which he could not introduce us. He had intended to lodge us, for that night, with a gentleman that lived upon the coaft, but difcovered on the way, that he then lay in bed without hope of life.

We refolved not to embarrass a family, in a time of fo much forrow, if any other expedient could be found; and as the Island of Ulva was over-against us, it was determined that we fhould pafs the ftrait and have recourse to the Laird, who, like the other gentlemen of the Islands, was known to Col. We expected to find a ferry-boat, but when at last we came to the water, the boat was gone.

We were now again at a ftop. It was the fixteenth of October, at a time when it is not convenient to fleep in the Hebrides without a cover, and there was no houfe within our reach, but that which we had already declined.

ULVA.