Pagina 328 di 483

With this resolution I traversed the northern highlands and fixed

on one of the remotest of the Orkneys as the scene of my labours.

It was a place fitted for such a work, being hardly more than a

rock whose high sides were continually beaten upon by the waves.

The soil was barren, scarcely affording pasture for a few

miserable cows, and oatmeal for its inhabitants, which consisted

of five persons, whose gaunt and scraggy limbs gave tokens of

their miserable fare. Vegetables and bread, when they indulged in

such luxuries, and even fresh water, was to be procured from the

mainland, which was about five miles distant.