course of injudicious and scourging cropping has deprived it for several ages.

Martin says that "The isle has been always valued " for its extraordinary fruitfulness in corn, yet, being "tilled every year, it is become less fruitful than former"ly. The cows and horses are of a very low size in this «isle, being in the winter and spring time often reduc"ed to eat sea ware, &c." He adds, that the breeds of both are good, though small sized, in consequence of bad feeding and mismanagement. It is unnecessary to repeat what has already been stated, Chap. IV. Sect. I. in this report, on the island now under consideration. The population is evidently excessive and must be diminished. The most eligible mode of accomplishing such diminution is not so obvious as the necessity of the measure; but any man who visits Tyree must be sensible that one third of the present population would be fully sufficient for managing the agriculture and kelp of the island. The quantity of kelp usually manufactured is from 200 to 320 tons, according to the nature of the seasons, and the quantity of sea-weeds cast upon the shores.

There were formerly large sums of money drawn by Tyree for whiskey, distilled from the excellent barley of this fertile island; but of late this branch of industry has been suppressed, and that too, very probably, to the ultimate advantage both of proprietor and tenants.

The island is low, no part being quite 350 feet above the level of the sea. It derived its appropriate vulgar name from this circumstance, viz. rioghachd-bharrthonn, i. e. the kingdom just emerging from the summits of the waves. The soil varies from pure sand to black

moss, and in some places, being the decomposition of lime stone and mixed with calcareous matters, is emi nently fertile, and susceptible of the most profitable and lucrative system of regular agriculture The great difficulty is that of inclosing, and of preventing blowing sands from injuring the more solid and valuable grounds. The extent of such ground in Tyree amounts to nearly 5000 acres, (as already mentioned,) including the reef, which is a pentagon of 1250 acres in the middle of the island, evidently formed by the sea, and though not at present liable to inundations from that element, as Martin says it was in his time, is not more than 20 feet in any part above the high water or sea mark. This reef was always a commonty to the 'tenants of Tyree, until very lately, when the factor got it as a separate farm. Its surface is dark loam above sand; the loam is from six to nine inches deep, and the sand in some parts several fathoms: The whole yields a beautiful specimen of Hebridian verdure in summer and autumn, and exhibits, from a conical tumulus near the centre, a display of richness unparalleled in any of the Hebrides, excepting some districts of Islay, Skye, and Uist.

The crops generally cultivated are barley, oats, potatoes, flax, and on some few farms, grasses and turnips. Barley has yielded on many farms 12 or 13 fold from the seed. In 1808 Mr Maclean, the active and intelligent tacksman of Kilmaluag, had 15 returns from barley and 24 from potatoes on some fields of his farm.

There is no wood of any kind on the island; consequently it will be difficult to raise timber, although the trunks of trees dug out of the mosses, are sufficient

evidence

evidence of this island having once, like the rest of the Hebrides, been covered with wood. The want of shelter, resulting from this total nakedness, is the greatest natural disadvantage of Tyree, and one which nothing but a regular plan of inclosing, planting furse and broom, and afterwards hardy willows and other trees already recommended in this report, will effectually remove. Previous to the prosecution of such plans, there must be some gentlemen farmers settled here, and they and the common tenants must have pretty long leases granted them. The very small and minute subdivisions of land must be abolished, and no less quantity than a penny land be in the possession of each individual tenant. These possessions must go to the eldest son, or at least to one specified heir of the tenant, and not be divided as at present in infinitum among his children and connections, to the ruin of the lands, as well the endless degradation and misery of the tenants themselves. Complete melioration must be given to the tenants for such houses, dykes, drains, and other permanent improvements as they may make; and every inducement held out to them to follow upon this island the example of Islay, Collonsay, and Gigha.

The minerals of Tyree have not been turned to any account. The marble of Ballyphetrish is no longer wrought, nor is it probable that any manufacture or branch of industry will prosper until a more systematical plan of management than those hitherto tried shall be adopted. A great and almost unsurmountable obstacle to the improvement of Tyree is the scarcity and expensiveness of fuel. The inhabitants are, for the most part, under the necessity of importing peats from Z z 2

the

the island of Mull; and the expence of importing them, though considerable, is but a small part of the diffi culty. They must first obtain permission to cast or dig their peats then make roads for the carriage of them to the shore then make several voyages over the worst part of the most boisterous sea in Europe, for the various and tedious operations of digging, raising, drying, stacking, carrying, boating, and importing home those peats to the nearest landing place to their dwellings (for there is no good harbour in Tyree ;)-and, finally, they must carry them from the shore to their own houses. It may be a very fair calculation to allot onethird of the year's exertions, and three-fourths of its risks and dangers, to this emolpyment alone; and great deductions of rent should therefore be allowed the inhabitants on account of the dismal and dangerous ope rations connected with their annual demands of fuel.

The natives of Tyree are, like the generality of their countrymen, a brave and hospitable race, and make a good figure among the other Hebridians, notwithstanding many disadvantages to which they have long been subjected. The Duke of Argyle is proprietor of the whole island; his ancestors having obtained. it in consequence of the misfortunes of the ancient and gallant family of Dowart. The valued rent of Tyree and Coll is L.280. 10s. 3d. and the real rent of Tyree, kelp included, is about L.3000 per annum.

16.

16.-COLL.

This island is omitted, like Tyree, by Dean Monroe, and but slightly mentioned by Buchanan, who says that "it is 12 miles long and 2 broad, and very fertile.' Martin, who seems to have been a stranger equally to Monroe's and Buchanan's descriptions of the Isles, says that is 10 miles long and 3 broad; and adds a fanciful circumstance, "that the Isle of Coll produces more boys than girls, and the isle of Tyree more girls than boys; as if nature intended both these isles for mutual alliances, without being at the trouble of going to the adjacent isles or continent to be matched. The parish book, (adds he,) in which the number of the baptized is to be seen, confirms this observation." The case is changed since Martin's time, (who probably got his information from some marriageable damsel in Tyree,) and more boys are born in both islands than girls; but the existing numbers of the sexes are pretty nearly the same as on the other isles; and, for reasons already mentioned and connected with the nature of the country, somewhat in favour of the females. The population of Coll is very nearly 1,100 souls, and has rather increased of late years.

The island is 14 miles long, from south-west to northeast, and varies in breadth from 3 to half a mile, but may be stated at an average 24 miles, which gives a surface of 30 square miles, or 15,000 Scotch acres.