Life is here, in some respects, improved beyond the condition of some other Islands.  In Sky what is wanted can only be bought, as the arrival of some wandering pedlar may afford an opportunity; but in Col there is a standing shop, and in Mull there are two.  A shop in the Islands, as in other places of little frequentation, is a repository of every thing requisite for common use.  Mr. Boswell’s journal was filled, and he bought some paper in Col.  To a man that ranges the streets of London, where he is tempted to contrive wants, for the pleasure of supplying them, a shop affords no image worthy of attention; but in an Island, it turns the balance of existence between good and evil.  To live in perpetual want of little things, is a state not indeed of torture, but of constant vexation.  I have in Sky had some difficulty to find ink for a letter; and if a woman breaks her needle, the work is at a stop.

As it is, the Islanders are obliged to content themselves with succedaneous means for many common purposes.  I have seen the chief man of a very wide district riding with a halter for a bridle, and governing his hobby with a wooden curb.

The people of Col, however, do not want dexterity to supply some of their necessities.  Several arts which make trades, and demand apprenticeships in great cities, are here the practices of daily economy.  In every house candles are made, both moulded and dipped.  Their wicks are small shreds of linen cloth.  They all know how to extract from the Cuddy, oil for their lamps.  They all tan skins, and make brogues.

As we travelled through Sky, we saw many cottages, but they very frequently stood single on the naked ground.  In Col, where the hills opened a place convenient for habitation, we found a petty village, of which every hut had a little garden adjoining; thus they made an appearance of social commerce and mutual offices, and of some attention to convenience and future supply.  There is not in the Western Islands any collection of buildings that can make pretensions to be called a town, except in the Isle of Lewis, which I have not seen.

If Lewis is distinguished by a town, Col has also something peculiar.  The young Laird has attempted what no Islander perhaps ever thought on.  He has begun a road capable of a wheel-carriage.  He has carried it about a mile, and will continue it by annual elongation from his house to the harbour.

Of taxes here is no reason for complaining; they are paid by a very easy composition.  The malt-tax for Col is twenty shillings.  Whisky is very plentiful:  there are several stills in the Island, and more is made than the inhabitants consume.