The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1884-10-23
The Depopulated Highlands.

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 for
merly teemed with hardy population.
Famous Glengarry is sheep walk, and
the powerful clan mcdonnell are now
in Canada. Round Fort Augustus and
far into the country of the clan Fraser
is naught but desolation. 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 Maidra, at
Seringapatam, at Assaye, and Argaum.
So late as 1849, when the present prime
minister had already obtained political
eminence, Hugh Miller attempted, but
frui,lessly. to draw the attention of the
British public to the work of destruc-
ton that was going on. He eloquently
proclaimed that ..while the law is ban
ishing 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 into 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 sit
uations and subject to the fury of At
lantic gales, the wretched hamlets that
now contain the remnants of the High
land clans. Probably he will wonder
how a population can at all manage 10
exist under such conditions. But there
they are, elbowed to the very verge of
their country. For large tracts ofsthat
country the proprietors even now can
show no scrap OF document, their
claim to possess resting solely on the
fact that it has never been contested.
Created and looked upon, like the foxes,
as mere vermin that interfere with
sport, discouraged and thwarted in
every direction, these people, notwith-
standing their poverty and the hard
ships of their lot, have maintained I'M
impaired the noblest attributes of their
race, Crime of any kind is almost I'M
known among them. Their moral
standard is the highest in Britain, con-
trasting in that respect most remark
ably with their lowland neighbors; and
not Il few of the leading British states
men, 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 fer
tile glens from whence the clans were
bahished, now turned into silent will
derness, 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 remain
der of the year, where not even anative
of the soil may plant his foot.-Ihe
Nineteenth CehtUrY.