Ordnance gazetteer of Scotland > Volume 4

HEBRIDES
two higsails ; the Isle of Man "jigger;" the beautiful
Guernsey runner, handsome as a racing yacht, and
powerful as a revenue-cutter, besides all tho numberless
fry of less noticeable vessels from the fat west country
smack, with its comfortable fittings, down to the
miserable Arran wherry. Swarms of sea-gulls float
everywhere, and the loch is so oily with the fish de-
posit that it requires a strong wind to ruffle its surface.
Everywhere on the shore and hill-sides, and on the
numberless islands rises the smoke of camps. Busy
swarms surround the curing-houses and the inn, while
the beach is strewn with fishermen lying at length, and
dreaming till work-time. In the afternoon the fleet
slowly begins to disappear, melting away out into the
ocean, not to re-emerge till long after the grey of the
next dawn. . . . Besides the regular fishermen and
people employed at the curing-stations, there are the
herring gutters — women of all ages, many of whom
follow singly the fortunes of the fishers from place to
place.' The East Coast boats bring over their own
women, and on their arrival invariably encamp on
shore, where the women keep house for the crew.
The Hebrides are included in five of the twenty-five
fishing districts into which Scotland is divided. Some
of these include also portions of the western coasts of
the mainland. The headquarters of the districts are
Stornoway, Loch Broom, Loch Carron and Skye,
Campbeltown, and Inveraray. The number of boats
employed at these at different dates, with the number of
men, the value of the whole property in boats, nets,
and lines, and the number of barrels of herrings salted,
and the number of cod, ling, or hake taken, is shown
in the following table : —
Year.
Eoats.
Men and
boys.
Value of
property.
Barrels of No. of cod,
herring, etc. , taken.
1870
1S71
18S1
3S11
3949
3S19
11,751
11,931
11,760
£181,711
£176,722
£181,066
1SS.200
122,321
170,281
431.S09
150,252
411,805
So plentiful among the Hebrides are the materials for
the manufacture of kelp, that for a long series of years
this was much more valuable than either agriculture or
fisheries. From the beginning of the manufacture down
to 1790, the price of kelp per ton was from £2 to £6 ;
but the subsequent great war with France having checked
the importation of barilla, the price rose to £15, and
ultimately to £20, per ton, and from 5000 to 6000 tons
were produced annually. Till 1822 considerable duties
were levied on the articles — barilla, pot and pearl ash,
and black ash — that could compete with it in the
market ; but in that year the duty on salt (which was,
along with sulphur, used in the manufacture of black
ash) was reduced from 15s. to 2s. a bushel. Shortly
after the duty on barilla was also reduced, and the
remaining duty on salt, as well as on alkali made from
salt, was entirely removed. This was in turn followed
by a large reduction of the duty on foreign sulphur and
on pot and pearl ash, and an entire removal of that on
ashes from Canada ; and the consequence was, that the
kelp manufacture was almost destroyed, and a period of
great misery and destitution followed. Many of the
landowners were almost ruined, as they lost at once
about five-sixths of their rental ; and the large popula-
tion engaged in the manufacture suriered very severely.
The price is now about £6 per ton, but the industry is
almost abandoned, except in North Uist. Down to
1865, in Benbecula, on an average, about 500 tons were
made, and in South Uist about 650, yielding a profit to
the proprietor of about £1200 ; but the manufacture
there has now almost entirely ceased. The time for
making kelp is during the months of June, July, August,
and September ; and that of the Hebrides is inferior to
the kelp of the Orkneys, and is only used in the manu-
facture of soap. Since the failure of the kelp manufac-
ture, the Hebrides may be said to have no industries
except at one or two places. Mr Campbell of Islay tried
to introduce the weaving of book muslin on his property,
HEBRIDES
by bringing some families of weavers from Glasgow, and
providing them with cottages and weaving appliances,
in a locality where weaving was cheap ; but though the
attempt was well made and duly prolonged, it did not
succeed. The spinning of yarn formed at one time a
staple in Islay, and while it flourished, employed all
the women on the island, £10,000 worth of yarn being
exported in a year ; but it was unable to withstand the
competition of the Glasgow manufactories. In Islay,
now, a good deal of whisky is made, and in Skye there
is a distillery at Talisker, and a small woollen manufac-
tory near Portree, while at Easdale and Balnahua there
are slate quarries of large extent, turning out about ten
millions of slates annually. There is a small chemical
work near Stornoway ; and in all the islands a good deal
of wool is carded, spun, and woven into plaiding,
blankets, and coarse fabrics.
The people are a hardy, industrious, patient, and, in
the main, a contented race, except when external influ-
ence works on their ignorance or their feeling of hard-
ships. Reforms in many ways are much needed, but
have to be carried out with great caution, as the island
nature is very tenacious of old habits, however wrong.
The main sources of livelihood of the crofters are their
small patches of land, and the fishing in winter, spring,
and autumn at home, and in summer on the East Coast,
where they supply the boats engaged in the herring
fishing with ' hired hands. ' The struggle for existence
is hard even when all these succeed ; when one or more
fails, much misery is the result. The people have all a
sad, serious look about them, as if life were too serious for
laughter. 'There is no smile,' says Robert Buchanan,
' on their faces. Young and old drag their limbs, not as
a Lowlander drags his limbs, but lissomly, with a swift
serpentine motion. The men are strong and powerful,
with deep-set eyes and languid lips, and they never
excite themselves over their labour. The women are
meek and plain, full of a calm domestic trouble, and
they work harder than their lords.' The last clause
might indeed in many, many cases be read, that they
work hard while their lords do nothing at all, and come
much nearer the truth ; and even Mr Buchanan himself,
with all his deep appreciation of what is best and
noblest in their character, and much as he dwells on
their love of home and family, their purity and their kind-
liness, is forced to admit the charge of indolence. ' The
people,' he says, 'are half-hearted — say an indolent
people. They do no justice to their scraps of land,
which, poor as they be, are still capable of great im-
provement ; but their excuse is, that they derive little
substantial benefit from improvements made where
there is only yearly tenure. They hunger often, even
when the fjords opposite their own doors are swarming
with cod and ling ; but it is to be taken into considera-
tion that only a few of them live on the sea-shore or
possess boats. They let the ardent east country fisher-
man carry off the finest hauls of herring. Their work
stops when their mouths are filled, and yet they are ill
content to be poor. All this, and more than this, is
truth, and sad truth.' The inhabitants of the outer
islands are very much isolated ; for though steamers
sail regularly from the Clyde and from Oban to all the
larger islands, the internal communication, except in
Lewis and Harris, is poor, and the arms of the lochs
difficult to cross. People, when they meet, talk, not
of the weather, but of the state of the fords. In out-
lying corners the people would fare but badly sometimes,
were it not for the visits of small trading vessels, barter-
ing goods of all kinds for fish, or any other marketable
commodities the people have to dispose of. The inner
islands are well provided with roads, and have much
more frequent communication. Skye has communica-
tion also by steamer with Stronie, the western terminus
of the Dingwall and Skye section of the Highland rail-
way.
The only towns of any great importance in the
Hebrides are Stornoway in Lewis, Tobermory in Mull,
Bowmore in Islay, and Portree in Skye, while there are
about twenty villages with populations of over 300.
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