nd evil. To live in
perpetual want of little things, is a state not indeed of torture, but of
constant vexation. I have in Sky had some difficulty to find ink for a
letter; and if a woman breaks her needle, the work is at a stop.

As it is, the Islanders are obliged to content themselves with
succedaneous means for many common purposes. I have seen the chief man
of a very wide district riding with a halter for a bridle, and governing
his hobby with a wooden curb.

The people of Col, however, do not want dexterity to supply some of their
necessities. Several arts which make trades, and demand apprenticeships
in great cities, are here the practices of daily economy. In every house
candles are made, both moulded and dipped. Their wicks are small shreds
of linen cloth. They all know how to extract from the Cuddy, oil for
their lamps. They all tan skins, and make brogues.

As we travelled through Sky, we saw many cottages, but they very
frequently stood single on the naked ground. In Col, where the hills
opened a place convenient for habitation, we found a petty village, of
which every hut had a little garden adjoining; thus they made an
appearance of social commerce and mutual offices, and of some attention
to convenience and future supply. There is not in the Western Islands
any collection of buildings that can make pretensions to be called a
town, except in the Isle of Lewis, which I have not seen.

If Lewis is distinguished by a town, Col has also something peculiar. The
young Laird has attempted what no Islander perhaps ever thought on. He
has begun a road capable of a wheel-carriage. He has carried it about a
mile, and will continue it by annual elongation from his house to the
harbour.

Of taxes here is no reason for complaining; they are paid by a very easy
composition. The malt-tax for Col is twenty shillings. Whisky is very
plentiful: there are several stills in the Island, and more is made than
the inhabitants consume.

The great business of insular policy is now to keep the people in their
own country. As the world has been let in upon them, they have heard of
happier climates, and less arbitrary government; and if they are
disgusted, have emissaries among them ready to offer them land and
houses, as a reward for deserting their Chief and clan. Many have
departed both from the main of Scotland, and from the Islands; and all
that go may be considered as subjects lost to the British crown; fo