From the front jacket: John Walker, minister of Moffat, was already a pioneer of scientific botany and geology when he was sent by the Commission for Annexed Estates to visit the Hebrides and report on their economic potential. He was asked to give an account of agriculture, population, possible developments in manufactures and fisheries, and social conditions. The General Assembly took the opportunity of his journey to add to his concerns the religious and educational state of the islands. Dr. Walker saw the Hebrides just as the ideas of the Improvers were reaching them, and his report gives us a last opportunity to see the basis of the old island economy and the life and conditions of the inhabitants.
