e with the two points behind pressing on the
ground. On this they sometimes drag home their sheaves, but often convey
them home in a kind of open panier, or frame of sticks upon the horse's
back.

Of that which is obtained with so much difficulty, nothing surely ought
to be wasted; yet their method of clearing their oats from the husk is by
parching them in the straw. Thus with the genuine improvidence of
savages, they destroy that fodder for want of which their cattle may
perish. From this practice they have two petty conveniences. They dry
the grain so that it is easily reduced to meal, and they escape the theft
of the thresher. The taste contracted from the fire by the oats, as by
every other scorched substance, use must long ago have made grateful. The
oats that are not parched must be dried in a kiln.

The barns of Sky I never saw. That which Macleod of Raasay had erected
near his house was so contrived, because the harvest is seldom brought
home dry, as by perpetual perflation to prevent the mow from heating.

Of their gardens I can judge only from their tables. I did not observe
that the common greens were wanting, and suppose, that by choosing an
advantageous exposition, they can raise all the more hardy esculent
plants. Of vegetable fragrance or beauty they are not yet studious. Few
vows are made to Flora in the Hebrides.

They gather a little hay, but the grass is mown late; and is so often
almost dry and again very wet, before it is housed, that it becomes a
collection of withered stalks without taste or fragrance; it must be
eaten by cattle that have nothing else, but by most English farmers would
be thrown away.

In the Islands I have not heard that any subterraneous treasures have
been discovered, though where there are mountains, there are commonly
minerals. One of the rocks in Col has a black vein, imagined to consist
of the ore of lead; but it was never yet opened or essayed. In Sky a
black mass was accidentally picked up, and brought into the house of the
owner of the land, who found himself strongly inclined to think it a
coal, but unhappily it did not burn in the chimney. Common ores would be
here of no great value; for what requires to be separated by fire, must,
if it were found, be carried away in its mineral state, here being no
fewel for the smelting-house or forge. Perhaps by diligent search in
this world of stone, some valuable species of marble might be discovered.
But neit