. The earth and its inhabitants ... en, before they can be considered safe, have to pass through a succession of fits—caused, in the opinion of medical men, by the peculiar food administered tothem, for from the day of their birth they are made to swallow oil taken fromthe stomach of a petrel mixed with port wine. Out of every nine children born, * J. Sands, Out of the World, or Life in St. Kilda. + John Tklorgan, Diseases of St. Kilda, British and Foreign Malical Jîeviiiv. 850 THE BRITISH ISLES. five die in infancy;* but the birth rate is unusually highland the population hasnot only not decr
. The earth and its inhabitants ... en, before they can be considered safe, have to pass through a succession of fits—caused, in the opinion of medical men, by the peculiar food administered tothem, for from the day of their birth they are made to swallow oil taken fromthe stomach of a petrel mixed with port wine. Out of every nine children born, * J. Sands, Out of the World, or Life in St. Kilda. + John Tklorgan, Diseases of St. Kilda, British and Foreign Malical Jîeviiiv. 850 THE BRITISH ISLES. five die in infancy;* but the birth rate is unusually highland the population hasnot only not decreased since the middle of last century, but the island has evendispatched a few emigrants to Australia. The Hebrides likewise difler from theneighbourin<i: mainland in their sanitary condition. It is asserted by medicalmen that natives of the Hebrides are not subject to consumption unless theyquit their homes and imbibe the germs of the disease elsewhere. It is believed Fig. 174.—Staffa: View t-iken from the top of a that this immunity is due to the acrid smoke of peat which they breathe in theirconfined cabiiis. Igneous rock occurs only at a single spot on the island of Lewis,t but isabundant on the islands contiguous to the mainland. The finest columns of basaltmay be seen on the small Eigg Island, to the south of Rum. The Scuir of^igg (1,272 feet) presents on its sea face a row of columns 470 feet in heio-ht. * Geo. Seton, St. Kilda, Past and Present. t For the geologj of Scotland see Gei ies elaborate Map, published iu 1876. NORTHEEN SCOTLAND. 351 and rising like a temple above a foundation of rock, in which are embedded thepetrified remains of a forest of pines. The sands at the foot of this Scuiroccasionally give forth a long-drawn musical sound when walked upon—aphenomenon similar to what ma}^ be witnessed on some beaches of Pomerania, inthe desert of Atacama, and on the slopes of Mount Sinai.* The large island of Mull, separated by the Sound of Mull an
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, booksubjectgeography, bookyear18
