t is not always his own tenant, but some distant friend that obtains
this honour; for an honour such a trust is very reasonably thought. The
terms of fosterage seem to vary in different islands. In Mull, the
father sends with his child a certain number of cows, to which the same
number is added by the fosterer. The father appropriates a
proportionable extent of ground, without rent, for their pasturage. If
every cow brings a calf, half belongs to the fosterer, and half to the
child; but if there be only one calf between two cows, it is the child's,
and when the child returns to the parent, it is accompanied by all the
cows given, both by the father and by the fosterer, with half of the
increase of the stock by propagation. These beasts are considered as a
portion, and called Macalive cattle, of which the father has the produce,
but is supposed not to have the full property, but to owe the same number
to the child, as a portion to the daughter, or a stock for the son.

Children continue with the fosterer perhaps six years, and cannot, where
this is the practice, be considered as burdensome. The fosterer, if he
gives four cows, receives likewise four, and has, while the child
continues with him, grass for eight without rent, with half the calves,
and all the milk, for which he pays only four cows when he dismisses his
Dalt, for that is the name for a foster child.

Fosterage is, I believe, sometimes performed upon more liberal terms. Our
friend, the young Laird of Col, was fostered by Macsweyn of Grissipol.
Macsweyn then lived a tenant to Sir James Macdonald in the Isle of Sky;
and therefore Col, whether he sent him cattle or not, could grant him no
land. The Dalt, however, at his return, brought back a considerable
number of Macalive cattle, and of the friendship so formed there have
been good effects. When Macdonald raised his rents, Macsweyn was, like
other tenants, discontented, and, resigning his farm, removed from Sky to
Col, and was established at Grissipol.

These observations we made by favour of the contrary wind that drove us
to Col, an Island not often visited; for there is not much to amuse
curiosity, or to attract avarice.

The ground has been hitherto, I believe, used chiefly for pasturage. In
a district, such as the eye can command, there is a general herdsman, who
knows all the cattle of the neighbourhood, and whose station is upon a
hill, from which he surveys the lower grounds; and if one ma