HEBRIDES, heb'ri-dez, The, or WEST ERN ISLANDS, Scotland, an archipelago off the west coast, extending from lat. 55° 35' to 58° 32' N.• the most southern island being Islay, and the most northern, Lewis. The group is politically divided between the shires of Ross and Cromarty, Inverness and Argyll, very nearly in the line of their coincidence with the coasts of the respective counties. They num ber about 500 in all, but many are inconsider able islets and rocks, and only about 100 are inhabited; area, about 2,812 square miles. They are usually divided into the Outer Hebrides, of which the principal are Lewis and Harris (forming a single island), North Uist, Benbe cula, South Uist and Barra; and the Inner Hebrides — Skye, Mull, Islay, Jura, Coll, Rum, Tiree, Colonsay, etc. The Outer are separated from the Inner, and from the mainland, by a strait or channel called the Minch, which at its narrowest part, between Harris and Syke, is about 12 miles broad. Ross and Cromarty, Inverness and Argyll are the counties to which they belong.
The climate is mild and salubrious, but vari able, tempestuous and humid. Snow and frost are almost unknown in the smaller islands, and are but little felt in the larger. There is com paratively little wood in the Hebrides, and on many of the islands none at all. In Lewis, Skye, Islay, Mull and several of the other islands, however, both forest and fruit trees have been planted to a considerable extent. Oats and barley are almost the only cereal crops raised. Potatoes are extensively culti vated. Cattle constitute the staple product. The native breed are small but handsome. The breed of horses in also small, but hardy and docile. The native breed of sheep is very small, but Cheviots have been introduced with success. The productive land is partly occu pied as sheep-farms; much of it is held by ((crofters," who occupy holdings usually of a very few acres, sometimes with a right of pasturage in common attached. There are also ((cotters') who occupy houses, with or without a patch of ground, on the land of the crofter, the farmer or the landlord, and who are often mere squatters paying no rent. Grouse-moors and deer ranges cover a considerable area. Owing to the minute division of the arable land there is in many places an excess of population. The condition of the crofters and cotters, especially in the Outer Hebrides and Skye, is very de pressed, their dwellings miserable and their liv ing poor, consisting chiefly of potatoes, milk and oats or barley bread, and in bad harvests it is often insufficient in quantity. The fisheries are
not developed to the extent they might be. Limestone and slate are the only minerals worked. Whisky is manufactured in Skye, Islay and Mull. Gaelic is still the language of the majority of the inhabitants of the Hebrides. The Hebrides were the Ebudae of Ptolemy and the Hebudes of Piing. In remote times they were subject to the kings of Norway, but in 1264 were annexed to the crown of Scotland. They were •held by various native chieftains, in vassalage to the Scottish monarch; but sub sequently fell into the hands of one powerful chief, a Macdonald, who in 1346 assumed the title of ((Lord of the Isles" and began to exer cise a practically independent rule. The aboli tion of heritable jurisdictions in 1748, which put an end to the system of communal owner ship of the soil as well as to the rule of the chieftains, was not an unmixed blessing; and it was followed by exorbitant rentals and by great emigrations to North America. The potato blight of 1846 caused great hardships to the population. The entire relations between owner and tenant in the Hebrides were made the subject of investigation by a royal com mission in 1884; this was followed by the Crofters Holdings Act of 1886, under which fair rents and fixity of tenure are assured to the crofters, and the hardships of their lot have been considerably mitigated. The inhabitants mostly belong to the United Free (Presby terian) Church, but in some of the islands Catholicism is predominant. Little was known about the Hebrides until the publication of (Johnson's Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland' (1775). In more recent times Scott's 'Lord of the Isles,' and the charming novels of William Black, have invested them with a halo of romance, and the steamers of the Clyde afford ample facilities for tourists who intend visiting the islands. Consult Pen nent, 'Tour in Scotland and Voyage to the Hebrides' (1774) ; Buchanan, The Hebrid Isles' (1883) ; Goodrich-Freer, The Outer Isles' (1902) ; Hartley, 'Wind-Seekers in the Hebrides' (1906).