Lewis-with-Harris

Lewis-with-Harris, an island of Scotland, the largest and most northerly of the Outer Hebrides, separated from the mainland by the Minch, and containing the town of Stornoway (q.v.), 43 miles NW. of Poolewe and 180 N. by W. of Oban. Its length is 60 miles; its greatest breadth is 28 miles; and its area is 859 miles, of which 683 belong to Lewis, the Ross-shire portion, in the north, and 176 to Harris, the Inverness-shire portion, in the south. The coasts are wild and rugged, the chief indentations being Broad Bay and Lochs Erisort, Seaforth, Resort, and Roag. The Butt of Lewis, a promontory at the extreme north, rises sheer from the sea to a height of 142 feet. Gneiss is the predominant rock; and the surface, attaining 2662 feet in Harris and 1750 in Lewis, consists mainly of hill, moor, and moss, treeless and almost shrubless, with much peat and fresh-water lakes innumerable. Less than 4 per cent. of the entire area is in cultivation. In 1844 'the Lews' was purchased for £190,000 from the Mackenzies of Seaforth by Sir James Matheson (1796-1878), who expended £330,000 on improvements. Pop. (1801) 12,164; (1831) 18,440; (1891) 30,726, mostly Gaelic-speaking. See CALLERNISH, CROFTERS, HEBRIDES; and W. A. Smith's Lewsiana (1875).