the Berubium of Ptolemy, with its numerous deep and lengthened chasms or ghoes, and curious detached stacks or columns of rock rising from the sea. This is one of the most interesting places of its kind in Scotland.

The Pentland Firth, that great eastern gulf-stream of the Atlantic, may be seen well from this station, flowing with the force of all its united tides through the narrow opening between the mainland and the Orcades. From the Hebrides and Cape Wrath the Western Ocean rolls on in one uniform unbroken stream, which, as it approaches the eastern sea, is dashed and buffeted against the projecting headlands of Caithness and Orkney—the contracted channel imparting to its waters augmented velocity and the utmost agitation. The current then expands; but after crossing the Moray Firth, it again dashes itself with tremendous force on the rocky shores of Banff and Aberdeen shires.

For about 18 miles, this road proceeds along the margin of the Firth, and affords varied views of the isles of Orkney, the Pentland Firth, and the projecting points of the mainland of Caithness. Agricultural improvement and the planting and reclaiming of waste lands have been carried on in the district with rapid strides, and at Castlehill Mr. Traill, M.P., employs a number of labourers in quarrying pavement flags, of which from three to four thousand square feet are annually exported.

THURSO,*

[Inns: The Royal; Caledonian.]

or Thor's town, is a burgh of barony holding of Sir George Sinclair as superior. It is an irregularly built town, about half the size of Wick, and contains some neat freestone houses, and a handsome church. The royal mail steamer sailing daily between Thurso and Stromness, affords a better opportunity of visiting the Orkneys than the route described at p. 588. East of the town stands a fine old castle (Sir George Sinclair of Ulbster, Bart.), and further on, in the same direction, Harold's Tower, over the tomb of Earl Harold, the possessor at one time of half of Orkney, Shetland, and Caithness, The route between Thurso and Tongue (44 miles), is described in a note at

page 586.

and who fell in battle against his own namesake, Earl Harold the Wicked, in the year 1190. On the west side of the bay are the ruins of Scrabster Castle, a residence of the bishops of Caithness.

The bay of Thurso is a magnificent object, and consists of a semicircular sweep of sandy beach, on which the long line of breakers yield their power with hollow moan. It is closed at either extremity by the precipitous rocks, which terminate in the high bluff promontories of Holborn and Dunnet Head, Over these, though upwards of 400 feet in height, the spray dashes during storms. In the opening between, the prodigious western precipices of Hoy, and other of the Orkney Isles, present a range of cliff scenery rarely surpassed in Britain, and the view from Holborn Head includes the Clett, a huge detached rock, about 400 feet high, the boundless expanse and heaving swell of ocean, and clouds of screaming sea-birds.

SUTHERLANDSHIRE.

The extensive county of Sutherland presents the striking peculiarity of having the whole of its surface of 1800 square miles under sheep, with the exception of a narrow border of arable land along its coast. More than four-fifths of this great territory belongs to the Sutherland family, and when to this is added their adjoining Cromarty estates, on the west of Ross-shire, we have an extent of property altogether unparalleled in this kingdom. In its superficial configuration and aspect, Sutherlandshire is distinguished by several marked features. It is washed by the ocean on three of its five sides. On the west and north coast, and in the section of country intermediate between the extreme points of these, are groups of huge mountains; while the bulk of the rest of the county is spread out in spacious undulating plains, edged by continuous chains of hills, of comparatively moderate height. Only a few of these stand out in prominent relief-as, for instance, the imposing central mass of Ben Clibrick.

GENERAL FEATURES.

577

The mountains of Sutherlandshire are characterised by their general isolation from each other, but all of them rest on a general table-land of considerable elevation. They are thus distinguished by boldness of form and outline. Of wood, excepting close by the eastern shore, and the lower parts of the Oykel River, which falls into the Dornoch Firth, there is none saving some recent plantations about Loch Inver and Tongue, and a few ancestral trees around the family seat of the Reay family. From the care, however, taken to keep the heath short, the luxuriant pastures, though wanting the emerald brilliancy of the Argyll Highlands, clothe the landscape in a subdued verdure, redeeming it from the gloom which would otherwise attach to its sequestered and extensive solitudes. The tourist must not look for woodland beauties, nor for the infinite variety of scenery which gives such a charm to almost all the land of mountain and flood to the south of the bounds of Sutherlandshire. But he will find himself recompensed by the severe grandeur of the majestic mountain forms, by the unbroken stillness of the large inlets of the sea, or of the fresh-water lakes, and the impressive altitude of its abrupt and rugged sea-worn cliffs.

The chief interest of the lover of the picturesque will be confined to the western and northern parts of the county, where he will be removed from the ordinary thoroughfares. The English language is universally understood, and indeed, well spoken. The cheapest and most expeditious way of entering the county is from the south by steamer from Granton (near Edinburgh) to Burghead, or by railway to the Alves Station, near Elgin, 4 miles from Burghead, where an omnibus meets the trains. A new iron steamer (Heather Bell), belonging to Sutherland, leaves the Little Ferry, near Golspie, on the mornings of Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday, returning from Burghead on the afternoons of these days. The distance is 28 miles, and she makes the passage in 24 hours.

A daily mail (four-horse as far as Tain) traverses the whole distance from Inverness to Thurso. From Inverness the tourist may take the regular mail (which runs daily) as far as Tain, if he does not wish to go on to Dunrobin. But whenever he leaves the coast road, he will be dependent on the open mail-cars or curricles, which run only on certain days of