LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
ST. KILDA.
(TO THE EDITOR OF THE " EPEOTITOR., Sin,—My attention has been called to some letters which have appeared in your two last numbers referring to St. Kilda. As proprietor of that island, I shall be glad if you will allow me to reply to some of the statements made by your correspondents. With respect to the establishment of a regular postal communi- cation, I regret to have to say that I cannot conceive it possible that such a proposal could be entertained by the Postmaster- General. Except in very calm weather, or with a northerly light breeze, a vessel cannot lie in the harbour, or communicate with the shore. Even in summer, it is usual for a vessel bound for St. Kilda to lie at Obe, in the Sound of Harris, watching for a favour- able day, and I have known her to wait there for weeks. A steamer might indeed often accomplish a passage when a sailing- vessel must fail, but the expense would be out of all reasonable proportion to the object to be attained, for out of a population of seventy persons, the Free-Church minister alone can read or write or speak English, and therefore the correspondence would scarcely justify even a biennial official post.
With regard to the loneliness of this little community, living far removed from the rest of the world, many of your readers will probably agree with your lady correspondent in imagining that they must feel lonely, and long for an interchange of words and thoughts with others ; but let them remember that these people have never known a more extended society, and are probably happier than if they had. Certain, at all events, it is that they form a community sufficiently content with their island home never to care to leave it. They have abundance of occu- pation in catching and killing the fulmar and other birds, from which they strip the feathers and draw the oil with which they pay their rents ; in cultivating their land, tending their cattle and sheep, weaving their wool into cloth, and when weather permits, catching the cod and ling, which abound on the coast. They have all the necessaries of life, and enjoy many of the comforts denied to persons of their class in more favoured localities ; they can, therefore, only claim the senti- mental sympathy we are naturally disposed to accord to those who cannot have the extended social intercourse and freedom of loco- motion to which we in society attach so high a value.
I observe that one of your correspondents offers a reason for the frequent deaths at a very early period of the St. Kilda children.
Without venturing to say so high an authority is mistaken, I am myself of opinion that the principal cause of death is the oily nature of the food taken by the mother, and I am the more dis- posed to think so, because a change of diet has been recommended, and has been attended with success.—I am, Sir, &c., MACLEOD OF MACLEOD.
[The St. Kildans pay taxes, and are entitled to some postal com- munication, if it took the Great Eastern' to carry it. As a matter of fact, they only ask a big boat, which they will row. As to their happiness, that is for them to judge of, not for their landlord— ED. Spectator.]
Previous page
