Volume 3 - Electric Scotland

SAND INUNDATION. 139
the extent of the land, there seems to be a steady acqui-
sition in regard to its value. On a superficial view, it
would appear, as it must do to the tenants who may
chance to suffer, that the whole process is injurious; as,
unquestionably, many spots, once fertile, are rendered
barren, at least for a time. But while those who lose
complain, the gainers, as usual, do not boast. The sand,
in its progress, serves to fertilize a more distant spot,
while it may suffocate that one on which it rests too
abundantly. Thus the loss of one farm, in point of fer-
tility as in extent, becomes the gain of another; and the
advantages and disadvantages are perpetually transfer-
red from the hand of one tenant to that of his neighbour.
But the proprietor is always gaining ; as the extent of
the improved land is far greater than that of the injured.
Not only here, but in South Uist, in Barra, in Coll, in
Harris, in Colonsa, and in many other places, the winds
sweep the sand far into the interior, till it is checked by
the hills ; where meeting with moisture by which it is
fixed, and peat to which it is a perpetual and ever-reno-
vated manure, it brings on a coat of verdure where no-
thing grew before but heath ;
whence that, which, on the
flat and arid shores, is the cause of small spots of barren-
ness, is, in its progress, the source of extensive fertility.
The springing of white clover is one among the results
which prove this good effect : as that is an invariable
result of the application of calcareous matter to Highland
pastures. The proprietors have not hitherto been aware
of the nature of this process, of so much importance in
the agriculture of these Islands. They have forgotten
to note the difference between their own lands and those
which sand injures: judging by habit, and forgetting to
observe or reason. It is proper for them to recollect that
the transference, of even common sand, may thus be