its of their maritime situation. This, however, is
not the case; those gifts of nature, which in any other commercial
kingdom would have been rendered subservient to the most valuable
purposes, are in Scotland lost, or nearly so, to the poor natives and
the public. The only difference, therefore, between the inhabitants
of the interior parts and those of the more distant coasts, consists
in this, that the latter, with the labors of the field, have to
encounter alternately the dangers of the ocean and all the fatigues
of navigation. To the distressing circumstances at home, as stated
above, new difficulties and toils await the devoted farmer when
abroad. He leaves his family in October, accompanied by his sons,
brothers, and frequently an aged parent, and embarks on board a small
open boat, in quest of the herring fishery, with no other provisions
than oatmeal, potatoes, and fresh water; no other bedding than heath,
twigs, or straw, the covering, if any, an old sail. Thus provided, he
searches from bay to bay, through turbulent seas, frequently for
several weeks together, before the shoals of herring are discovered.
The glad tidings serve to vary, but not to diminish his fatigues.
Unremitting nightly labor (the time when the herrings are taken),
pinching cold winds, heavy seas, uninhabited shores covered with
snow, or deluged with rain, contribute towards filling up the measure
of his distresses; while to men of such exquisite feelings as the
Highlanders generally possess, the scene which awaits him at home
does it most effectually. Having disposed of his capture to the
Busses, he returns in January through a long navigation, frequently
amidst unceasing hurricanes, not to a comfortable home and a cheerful
family, but to a hut composed of turf, without windows, doors, or
chimney, environed with snow, and almost hid from the eye by its
astonishing depth. Upon entering this solitary mansion, he generally
finds a part of his family, sometimes the whole, lying upon heath or
straw, languishing through want or epidemical disease; while the few
surviving cows, which possess the other end of the cottage, instead
of furnishing further supplies of milk or blood, demand his immediate
attention to keep them in existence. The season now approaches when
he is again to delve and labor the ground, on the same slender
prospect of a plent