In discriminating between the Outer and the Inner Hebrides as many do, this differentiation has a geological basis, for the Outer Hebrides have a foundation of gneiss, while the more northerly at least of the Inner Hebrides are of trap rock. Broadly speaking, in popular usage the term is “Western Islands,” while in literature “Hebrides” is used. This seems all the more appropriate, because it was the accident of a misplaced or added letter that gave the islands their literary cognomen. As in the case of our own country, which has profited so richly through Scottish emigration from those islands, some of the most delightfully sounding names, in their present form, have come to us through the mistake of a transcriber; as, for example, the romantic name, Horicon, with which tourists on Lake George as well as readers of Cooper’s novels are familiar. The real word intended for the map is “Iroquois,” but as a Frenchman wrote it “Horicou,” which was further altered by a misprint, which made it “Horicon,” it has so remained. So also the “Hebudes” of Pliny, spelled by a misprint “Hebrides,” has held its own. Sir Walter Scott adheres to the form “Hebudes.” “Grampian,” which sounds so pleasant to the ear, is another instance of a false reading or misprint, which improves the original form and sound. The total area of these Western Islands is 2812 square miles, or a fourth larger than Delaware. Only one ninth of the soil is cultivated, for most of the surface consists of moors and mountains. This region being at the terminal of the Gulf Stream, the climate is mild, though so humid that mists are almost perpetual. The drizzling rains are so common that the mountains are hidden from view or shrouded in fog or cloud most of the time. The rainfall is heavy. In one place forty-two inches is the average. Potatoes and turnips, barley and oats form the staple crops, though with sheep-farming, cattle-raising, fishing, distilling, slate-quarrying, and the making of tweeds, tartans, and woollen cloth, with assistance from the patronage of summer tourists, the people are able to get a living. In religious “persuasion” most of the inhabitants belong to the United Free Church, though on some of the islands the people adhere to the forms of religion cherished in the Roman Catholic Church.