Page:A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland - Johnson (1775).djvu/378

 the mere lover of naked nature. The inhabitants are thin, provisions are scarce, and desolation and penury give little pleasure.

The people collectively considered are not few, though their numbers are small in proportion to the space which they occupy. is said to contain six thousand, and fifteen thousand. Of the computation respecting, I can give no account; but when I doubted the truth of the numbers attributed to , one of the Ministers exhibited such facts as conquered my incredulity.

Of the proportion, which the product of any region bears to the people, an estimate is commonly made according to the pecuniary price of the necessaries of life; a principle of judgment which is never certain, because it supposes what is far from truth, that the value of money is always