disposition of some of the islanders is mainly to be ascribed to
the influence of such examples.

But to return. Owing to the mutual hostilities of the different
tribes I have mentioned, the mountainous tracts which separate
their respective territories remain altogether uninhabited; the
natives invariably dwelling in the depths of the valleys, with a
view of securing themselves from the predatory incursions of
their enemies, who often lurk along their borders, ready to cut
off any imprudent straggler, or make a descent upon the inmates
of some sequestered habitation. I several times met with very
aged men, who from this cause had never passed the confines of
their native vale, some of them having never even ascended midway
up the mountains in the whole course of their lives, and who,
accordingly had little idea of the appearance of any other part
of the island, the whole of which is not perhaps more than sixty
miles in circuit. The little space in which some of these clans
pass away their days would seem almost incredible.

The glen of the Tior will furnish a curious illustration of this.

The inhabited part is not more than four miles in length, and
varies in breadth from half a mile to less than a quarter. The
rocky vine-clad cliffs on one side tower almost perpendicularly
from their base to the height of at least fifteen hundred feet;
while across the vale--in striking contrast to the scenery
opposite--grass-grown elevations rise one above another in
blooming terraces. Hemmed in by these stupendous barriers, the
valley would be altogether shut out from the rest of the world,
were it not that it is accessible from the sea at one end, and by