Scotland/Scots > Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland

292 A JOURNEY TO THE
that a few years ago the inhabitants were
eight hundred, between the ages of feven
and of feventy. Round numbers are fel-
dom exa£t. But in this cafe the authority
is good, and the errour likely to be little.
If to the eight hundred be added what the
Jaws of computation require, they will be
iucreafed to at leaf! a thoufand •, and if the
dimenfions of the country have been accu¬
rately related, every mile maintains more
than twenty-five.
This proportion of habitation is greater
than the appearance of the country feems to
admit; for wherever the eye wanders, it
fees much wafte and little cultivation. I
am more inclined to extend the land, of
which no meafure has ever been taken,
than to diminifh the people, who have been
really numbered. Let it be fuppofed, that
a computed mile contains a mile and a half,
as was commonly found true in the men-
furation of the Enghjb roads, and we fhall
then