ning of October; and being fo late, is very much subject to disappointments from the rains

that follow the equinox.

particularly difaftrous.

This year has been

Their rainy feafon

lafts from Autumn to Spring. They have feldom very hard frofts; nor was it ever known that a lake was covered with ice ftrong enough to bear a skater. The fea round them is always open. The fnow falls but foon melts; only in 1771, they had a cold Spring, in which the island was fo long covered with it, that many beasts, both wild and domestick, perished, and the whole country was reduced to distress, from which I know not if it is even yet recovered.

The animals here are not remarkably fmall; perhaps they recruit their breed from the main land. The cows are fometimes without horns. The horned and unhorned cattle are not accidental variations, but different fpecies, they will however breed together.

October 3d, The wind is now changed, and if we fnatch the moment of opportunity, an efcape from this ifland is become practicable; I have no reason to complain of my reception, yet I long to be again at home.

You

You and my mafter may perhaps expect, after this description of Skie, fome account of myself. My eye is, I am afraid, not fully recovered; my ears are not mended; my nerves feem to grow weaker, and I have been otherwise not as well as I fometimes am, but think myself lately better. This climate perhaps is not within my degree of healthy latitude.

Thus I have given my most honoured miftress the story of me and my little ramble. We are now going to fome other isle, to what we know not, the wind will tell us.

I am, &c.

Compliments to Queeney, and Jack, and Lucy, and all.

LETTER LXXXII.

To Mr. THRAL E.

DEAR SIR,

Isle of Mull, O&. 15, 1773,

SINCE I had the honour of writing to my mif

tress, we have been hindered from returning, by a tempest almost continual. We tried eight days ago to come hither, but were driven by the wind into the isle of Col, in which we were confined eight days. We hired a floop to bring us hither, and hope foon to get to Edinburgh.

Having for many weeks had no letter, my longings are very great to be informed how all things are at home, as you and mistress allow me to call it. A letter will now perhaps meet me at Edinburgh, for I fhall be expected to pass a few days at Lord Auchenleck's, and I beg to have my thoughts fet at reft by a letter from you or my mistress,

Be fo kind as to fend either to Mrs. Williams or Mr. Levett, and if they want money, advance them ten pounds,

6

I hope

I hope my mistress keeps all my very long letters, longer than I ever wrote before. I fhall perhaps spin out one more before I have the happiness to tell you at home that I am Your obliged humble fervant.

THOU

HOUGH I have written to Mr. Thrale, yet having a little more time than was promised me, I would not fuffer the messenger to go without fome token of my duty to my mistress, who, I fuppofe, expects the ufual tribute of intelligence, a tribute which I am not now very able to pay.

October 3d, After having been detained by ftorms many days at Skie, we left it, as we thought, with a fair wind; but a violent gust, which Bof. had a great mind to call a tempeft, forced us into Coll, an obfcure island; on which

-nulla campis

Arbor æftivâ recreatur aurâ.

M 4

There

and an old

There is literally no tree upon the island, part of it is a fandy wafte, over which it would be really dangerous to travel in dry weather and with a high wind. It feems to be little more than one continued rock, covered from space to space with a thin layer of earth. It is, however, according to the Highland notion, very populous, and life is improved beyond the manners of Skie; for the huts are collected into little villages, and every one has a small garden of roots and cabbage. The laird has a new house built by his uncle, caftle inhabited by his ancestors. The young laird entertained us very liberally; he is heir, perhaps, to three hundred fquare miles of land, which, at ten fhillings an acre, would bring him ninety-fix thousand pounds a-year. He is defirous of improving the agriculture of his country; and, in imitation of the Czar, travelled for improvement, and worked with his own hands upon a farm in Hertfordshire, in the neighbourhood of your uncle Sir Thomas Salusbury. He talks of doing useful things, and has introduced turnips for winter fodder. He has made a small effay towards a road.

Coll is but a barren place. Description has here few opportunities of fpreading her

colours.