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OLD HIGHLAND FARMERS.

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system has followed, by which the women of the Highlands are more confined to the discharge of those duties which peculiarly belong to their sex.

The Highland pasturage is better adapted for sheep than black cattle, because the latter can seldom collect above one-third of the herbage which sheep can; and it is well known that, for every pound of beef which a Highlander sends to market, a shepherd will send three pounds of mutton. The number of sheep fed upon these mountains is almost incredible; and as they can be pastured where the plough would be unavailing, the policy of no longer rearing them in fertile arable land, kept in grass in England, must be immediately felt, and speedily followed.

The Highlands have been considered as a nursery for soldiers, and it has been thought that the recruiting service will inevitably suffer by the changes which have taken place in their rural economy. But this, it appears, is far from being the case. At Glasgow and in other towns, and along the shores where fisheries are established, the same hardy loyal race will still be found. The population of the Highlands is dispersed, not diminished; and the Highlanders thus scattered are of more use to the community and to themselves than if they remained in the uninterrupted indulgence of their ancient habits. For this honourable advantage a mere

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HIGHLAND RECRUITS.

local name and character ought to be gladly exchanged. If, in certain parishes of Caithness, the recruiting-officer is not able to enrol as many in the service of the empire as before, he may supply the deficiency at Paisley, and its neighbourhood.

By the following official return, it appears that the recruiting service has not suffered by the rural changes which have taken place in the Highlands :-

Number of men raised in Scotland under the Army of Reserve Act,
from its commencement in July 1803, till its repeal in June 1804, 5635
Under the Additional Force Act, from the commencement, 5th
September, 1804, to 26th December, 1804

To 27th December, 1805

To the repeal of the Act, (June, 1806,)

By the recruiting districts, in the ordinary way of recruiting.
From the 3d May to 31st December, 1805
From the 1st January to 31st December, 1806
to 31st December, 1807

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I was informed in the Highlands that that degrading and impolitic system of cotters and servitudes, something like the duty-work in Ireland, is daily decreasing, and day-labourers are every where multiplying. Notwithstanding the failure of a vast and highly patriotic manufactory for spinning and weaving cotton, which was established a few years since in the Firth of Dornoch, for the laudable purpose of endeavouring o ascertain how far the genius of the people and the nature

HIGHLAND MANUFACTURES.

467

of the place were propitious to such an establishment, many persons well informed upon Highland matters are still disposed to think, that, in time, that country may become the seat of manufactures to a considerable extent. It has, by those who are unfavourable to this opinion, been thought that Highland manufacture must be confined to the preparing and spinning of wool for the clothing countries. On the other hand, it has been ascertained that the soil and climate are well adapted for the growing of flax, and several linen-manufactures are now in a tolerably flourishing condition in some of the Grampian districts; it is thought too that hemp might be raised, and ropemanufactures established, equal to the supplying the fisheries with all their cordage. It has also been properly inferred, that, if spinning were established, weaving, dying, and dressing the cloth, would soon follow. The turf in the Highlands is generally good, and, on account of the numerous arms of the sea which every where penetrate their shores, coal may be carried coastways, or conveyed into the interior by the roads which have been already formed and are now constructing. Wonderful discoveries have been within a few years made in the power and application of steam, by which the consumption of fuel in manufactories is so amazingly reduced, as to be now, in large manufacturing houses, of very little consideration. All these circumstances unite to make us hope that the day is

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HIGHLAND MANUFACTURES.

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not far distant, when, instead of the Highlands being chiefly inhabited by the shepherd and his flocks, as some have predicted whilst the sides of mountains are covered with cattle in the summer, and improved agriculture provides green food for them in the winter and the spring -the vallies shall contain enterprising agriculturists and successful manufacturers.

CHAP. XXV.

SAIL FROM OBAN-ITINERANT MERCHANTS—A MULL EQUIPAGE -STAMMERING PONIES-MERVIN-MULL ROADS ARRIVAL AT.

ULVA-GATES-ULVA-HOUSE-A PIPER-ANECDOTE-MUSICAL BOATMEN-ISLAND OF STAFFA-BISHOP OF DERRY AND HERDS-.

MAN-IONA..

AT Oban I engaged a large boat, with two men and sails, to carry me to Aros, in the Sound of Mull, a little voyage of about thirty-five miles, for a guinea and a half. As Oban is the great disembarking port for Mull, Staffa, and Icomkill, let me recommend the Hebridean tourist to carry with him changes of clothes, linen, and boots. I mention this, because it is generally thought that nothing is more easy than to accomplish the survey of these islands in two or three days, whereas it is frequently an undertaking, and a very arduous one, of ten days or a fortnight, if the wind and weather prove unfavourable, and they are rarely propitious.

I permitted two itinerant dealers in merchandise for the islands to go over with me. As it occurred in Scotland, I was not surprised to overhear them beguiling the voyage

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