Volume 3 - Electric Scotland

FOOD OF THE HIGHLANI>S. 349^
but too true that they are not sufficiently provident
ag-ainst possible failures.
That something far too nearly approaching* to famine
does occasionally occur, even at the present day, is too
well known. I already noticed the poverty of a portion
of the people in Barra ; I also remarked on the state of
Caithness and Sutherland during one particular summer;
and it is unfortunately certain, that such is the general
close adaptation of the people to the food, at present, as
to render it probable that similar misfortunes must sometimes
inevitably take place. The history of that summer
in Sutherland was highly distressing ; but I omitted to
notice it when describing that country, that I might re-
serve it till the general question should come under
review. Where the river meets the sea at Tongue, there
is a considerable ebb, and the long sand banks are pro-
ductive of cockles, in an abundance which is almost un-
exampled. At that time, they presented, every day at
low water, a singular spectacle; being crowded with
men, women, and children, who were busily employed
in digging for these shell-fish as long as the tide permit-
ted. It was not unusual also to see thirty or forty horses
from the surrounding country, which had been brought
down for the purpose of carrying away loads of them,
to distances of many miles. This was a well-known sea-
son of scarcity, and, without this resource, I believe it is
not too much to say, that many individuals must have
died of want. The meal had been scanty, in conse-
quence of the failure of the last year's harvest, the
potatoes had supplied its place till they were exhausted,
the new crop was far off, and nothing remained, in many
places, but an insufficient supply of milk. I visited many
cottages here, and found the people living on milk and
cockles, without a particle of vegetable matter. In other
parts of the country, where this resource was not to be