Easdale

   EASDALE, an island of the Hebrides, annexed to the parish of Kilbrandon, in the district of Lorn, county of Argyll, and containing 531 inhabitants. This island is situated a little to the west of that of Seil, belonging to the same parish, from which it is separated by a narrow channel called Easdale Sound; it is washed by the Atlantic on the south, and the Sound of Mull on the west and north-west, and is less than a square mile in extent. The village is built on both sides of the sound, and is chiefly inhabited by persons employed in the slate-quarries, whose tenements are one story high, with good slate roofs, and of neat and comfortable appearance. Though slate of the same kind is obtained in the islands of Seil and Luing, Easdale is the chief seat of the operations for raising the fine blue durable material for which it has been so long and justly celebrated; the whole island consists of it, and there is one quarry 120 feet below the level of the sea. The quarries, which are in extensive operation, have been wrought for nearly two centuries; and the four now open in the islands employ about 200 men, and produce from four to five millions of slates annually: much of the labour formerly done by horses, carts, &c., is now effected by the aid of steam-engines and by railroads. The steamers running between Glasgow and the northern ports pass along the Sound of Easdale, and a post communicates daily with Oban. There is a school supported by the Society for Propagating Christian Knowledge.