The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1884-11-06
THE DEpOPULArED HIGHLANDS.


Tho Homes OF Famous Chicftains Deserted
by Their Descendants.
J There are few Highland glens that
do not contain traces of the banished
population. In Lochaber, along the
shores Of Loeb Arkaig. the home of
the Clan Cameron, the remains of what
were once extensive townships may
yet be seen. The celebrated Glencoe
formerly teemed with hardy pop
ulation. Famous Glengarry is sheep
walk, and the powerful Clan Macdon-
nell are now in Canada. Round Fort
Augustus and far into the country of
the Clan Fraser is naught but desola-
ton. In hundreds of straths in Ross
shire the wild heather has not even yet
obliterated the green pastures and the
cultivated fields that once belonged to
the MacKenzies and Munroes, and
from whence the different battalions of
the gallant Ross-shire Bluffs marched to
conquer at Mazda, ut Seringapatam, at
Assaye, and Argauin. So late as lS49,
when the present Prime Minister had
already obtained political eminence,
Hugh Miller attempted, but fruitlesslv,
to draw the attention of the British
public to the work of destruction that
was going on. He eloquently proclaim
ed that "while the law is banishing its
tens for terms of seven and fourteen
years, the penalty of deep-dyed crimes,
irresponsible and infatuated power Is
banishing its thousands for life for no
crime whatever" A large number of
the dispossessed tenantry were sent to
America; the remainder settled on the
seashore, where they were cramped in
to small holdings, and have since lived.
The tourist steaming along the wild
coast of the western Highlands and
islands may see perched on every cliff,
In the most exposed situations and sub
ject to the fury of Atlantic gales, the
wretched hamlets that now contain the
remnants of the Highland clans Prob
ably he will wonder how a population
can at all manage to exist under such con-
ditions. But there they are, elbowed to
the very verge of their country. For
large tracts of that country the pro-
prietors even now can show no scrap
of document, their claim 10 possession
resting solely on the fact that Il has
never been contested. Created and
looked upon, like the foxes, as mere
vermin that interfere with sport, dis
couraged and thwarted in every direc-
ton, these people, Notwithstanding
their poverty and the hardships of
their lot, have maintained unimpaired
the noblest attributes of their race.
Crime of any kind is almost unknown
among them. Their moral standard is
the highest in Britain. contrasting in
that respect most remarkably with their
lowland neighbors; and not few of,
the leading British statesmen, lawyers,
divines, and soldiers of the past eighty
years first saw the light in these crofters
huts. Far behind the strip of Inhabited
littoral stretch the Blue Mountains,
the snug and often fertile glens from
whence the clans were banished, now
turnedinto silent wildernesses, inhabited
only by sheep and deer and an occasional
shepherd or keeper. There are the vast
tracts rented by the American,
Mr.. Winans, as hunting ground, to
be visited by that alien for two or three
months, and abandoned to solitude for
the reminder of the year, where not
even native of the soil may plant
his foot. Nineteenth Century.