the crew hand and foot, and fet them a-drift. Mar leod landed upon Egg, and demanded the offenders; but the inhabitants refufing to furrender them, retreated to a cavern, into which they thought their enemies unlikely to follow them. Macleod choked them with smoke, and left them lying dead by families as they stood.

Here the violence of the weather confined us for fome time, not at all to our difcontent or inconvenience. We would indeed very willingly have vifited the islands, which might be feen from the houfe fcattered in the fea, and I was particularly defirous to have viewed Ifay; but the ftorms did not permit us to launch a boat, and we were condemned to liften in idleness to the wind, except when we were better engaged by liftening to the ladies.

We had here more wind than waves, and fuffered the severity of a tempeft, without enjoying its magnificence. The fea being broken by the multitude of islands, does not roar with so much noise, nor beat the ftorm with fuch foamy violence, as I have remarked on the coaft of Suffex. Though, while I was in the Hebrides, the wind was extremely turbulent, I never faw very high billows.

The country about Dunvegan is rough and barren. There are no trees, except in the orchard, which is a low fheltered spot furrounded with a wall.

When this house was intended to sustain a fiege, a well was made in the court, by boring the rock downwards, till water was found, which, though fo near to the fea, I have not heard mentioned as

brackish,

brackish, though it has fome hardness, or other qualities, which make it less fit for ufe; and the family is now better supplied from a stream, which runs by the rock, from two pleafing water-falls,

Here we faw fome traces of former manners, and heard fome standing traditions. In the houfe is kept an ox's horn, hollowed fo as to hold perhaps two quarts, which the heir of Macleod was expected to fwallow at one draught, as a teft of his manhood, before he was permitted to bear arms, or could claim a feat among the men. It is held that the return of the laird to Dunvegan, after any confiderable abfence, produces a plentiful capture of herrings; and that, if any woman croffes the water to the oppofite ifland, the herrings will defert the coaft. Boetius tells the fame of fome other place. This tradition is not uniform. Some hold that no woman may pafs, and others that none may pass but a Macleod.

Among other guefts, which the hofpitality of Dunvegan brought to the table, a vifit was paid by the laird and lady of a small island south of Sky, of which the proper name is Muack, which fignifies fwine. It is commonly called Muck, which the proprietor not liking, has endeavoured, without effect, to change to Monk. It is ufual to call gentlemen in Scotland by the name of their poffeffions, as Raafay, Bernera, Loch Buy, a practice neceffary in countries inhabited by clans, where all that live in the fame territory have one name, and must be therefore difcriminated by fome addition. This gentleman, whofe name, I think, is Maclean, fhould be regularly called Muck ; but the appellation, which he thinks too coarse for U 3

his

his island, he would like ftill less for himself, and he is therefore addreffed by the title of Ifle of Muck.

This little ifland, however it be named, is of confiderable value. It is two English miles long, and three quarters of a mile broad, and confequently contains only nine hundred and fixty English acres. It is chiefly arable. Half of this little dominion the laird retains in his own hand, and on the other half, live one hundred and fixty perfons, who pay their rent by exported What rent they pay, we were not told, and could not decently enquire. The proportion of the people to the land is fuch, as the moft fertile countries do not commonly maintain.

corn.

The laird having all his people under his immediate view, feems to be very attentive to their happiness. The devaftation of the fmall-pox, when it vifits places where it comes feldom, is well known. He has difarmed it of its terror at Muack, by inoculating eighty of his people. The expence was two fhillings and fixpence a head. Many trades they cannot have among them, but upon occafion, he fetches a fmith from the ifle of Egg, and has a taylor from the main land, fix times a year. This ifland well deferved to be feen, but the laird's abfence left us no opportunity.

Every inhabited island has its appendant and subordinate iflets. Muck, however finall, has yet others fmaller about it, one of which has only ground fufficient to afford pasture for three wethers.

At Dunvegan I had tafted lotus, and was in danger of forgetting that I was ever to depart, till Mr.

Bofwell

Bofwell fagely reproached me with my fluggishness and foftness. I had no very forcible defence to make, and we agreed to purfue our journey. Macleod accompanied us to Ulinish, where we were entertained by the sheriff of the island,

ULINIS H.

Mr. Macqueen travelled with us, and directed our attention to all that was worthy of observation. With him we went to fee an ancient building, called a dun or borough. It was a circular inclosure, about fortytwo feet in diameter, walled round with loose stones, perhaps to the height of nine feet. The walls are very thick, diminishing a little towards the top, and though in these countries ftone is not brought far, must have been raised with much labour. Within the great circle were several fmaller rounds of wall, which formed diftinct apartments. Its date and its ufe are unknown. Some fuppofe it the original feat of the chiefs of the Macleods. Mr. Macqueen thought it a Danish fort.

The entrance is covered with flat ftones, and is narrow, because it was neceffary that the ftones which lie over it, fhould reach from one wall to the other; yet, ftrait as the paffage is, they seem heavier than could have been placed where they now lie, by the naked strength of as many men as might stand about them. They were probably raised by putting long pieces of wood under them, to which the action of a long line of lifters might be applied, Savages, in all countries, have patience proportionate to their unskilfulness, and are content to attain their end by very te dious methods.

If it was ever roofed, it might once have been a dwelling, but as there is no provifion for water, it could not have been a fortrefs. In Sky, as in every other place, there is an ambition of exalting whatever has furvived memory, to fome important ufe, and referring it to very remote ages. I am inclined to fufpect, that in lawless times, when the inhabitants of every mountain ftole the cattle of their neighbour, these enclosures were used to fecure the herds and flocks in the night. When they were driven within the wall, they might be easily watched, and defended as long as could be needful; for the robbers durft not wait till the injured clan fhould find them in the morning,

The interior enclosures, if the whole building were once a house, were the chambers of the chief inhabitants. If it was a place of fecurity for cattle, they were probably the fhelters of the keepers.

From the Dun we were conducted to another place of fecurity, a cave carried a great way under ground, which had been difcovered by digging after a fox. Thefe caves, of which many have been found, and many probably remain concealed, are formed, I believe, commonly by taking advantage of a hollow, where banks or rocks rife on either fide. If no fuch place can be found, the ground must be cut away, The walls are made by piling ftones against the earth, on either fide. It is then roofed by large ftones laid across the cavern, which therefore cannot be wide. Over the roof, turfs were placed, and grass was fuffered to grow; and the mouth was concealed by bufhes, or fome other cover.

Thefe