Volume 3 - Electric Scotland

208
acriculture.
pasturage. It is somewhat awkward to be condemned to
split our remarks and our philosophy into scraps and
fragments; yet if the traveller travels, and the things
that ought to have come to day only chuse to come to-
morrow, who is to blame. I ought, however, to say, that
there are sheep in one or two of these islands, and that
whoever catches them deserves to eat them for his pains.
The greater part of the western rocky shores presents
a system of agriculture which appears almost incredible
to a traveller who is yet new to the Highlands. Not that
it is limited to the sea coasts only ; as it prevails where-
ever the crofting system has been adopted. It is chiefly
remarkable, however, in those islands, which, like Coll
and Rona, consist of gneiss; or on the shores of the main-
land, which, like Assynt and Loch Inver, are formed of
the same rock. In such places, the ground is peculiarly
encumbered with protruding rocks ; the only soil which
they contain being dispersed among these, often in very
small portions, and in a most intricate manner. Such as
it is, it must, however, be cultivated, since every one is
compelled, by the system of extreme division, to raise his
own grain and potatoes. The appearance of such a tract
when in cultivation, is not a little extraordinary, since,
from the minuteness of the patches, it resembles a col-
lection of webs of baize or cloth put out to dry. The
small ness of these gives them an aspect almost ludi-
crous ; especially when widely separated from each other,
so as to appear like distinct corn-fields. It is no exag-
geration to say that I have measured such a field of corn,
not more than forty feet long and two wide. I believe
that we might even find smaller ones. If, at first sight,
this appears a very melancholy and fruitless kind of
farming, it is much less so when fairly examined. In
such rocky soils, and among these irregularities, the