ON THE AGRICULTURE OF THE COUNTY OF SUTHERLAND. 17 



Fleet, ]3ut at last both were successfully overcome. Across 

 the former, at Bonar, a very handsome bridge was constructed 

 by Mr Telford at a cost of £13,971. It consists of two stone 

 arches of 50 and GO feet span respectively, and one iron arch 

 of 150 feet span ; while on the Koss-shire side an extensive 

 embankment had to be made. The work was begun in July 

 1811 and completed in Novemlicr 1812. Mr James Loch, com- 

 missioner on the Sutherland estates, in his interesting account 

 of the Stafford improvements, published in 1820, states that the 

 iron portion of this handsome bridge " was cast in Denbighshire, 

 where it was first put together, and then taken to pieces and re- 

 erected in the furthest extremity of the Highlands of Scotland, 

 and exhibits in that remote district a striking monument of 

 national enterju'ise and liberalit}', and of the public spirit of the 

 county of Sutherland." The other arm of the sea referred to, — 

 Loch Fleet, or the Little Ferry, — lies between Dornoch and Gol- 

 spie. A mound, 999 yards long, 60 yards wide at the base, 18 

 feet in perpendicular height, and sloping to about 20 feet wide 

 at the top, was formed at a narrow part of the channel, and at 

 the north end w^as constructed a substantially built bridge, 

 34 yards long, consisting of four arches of 12 feet span each, 

 and fitted witli strong valve gates. The total cost of this im- 

 portant undertaking amounted to about £9000, of which £1000 

 was subscribed by Lord Stafford, and which Mr Loch estimates 

 as the proljablc amount by which the estate of Sutherland 

 might be l)eneiited by excluding the flowing of the tide over some 

 good land, and by obtaining about 400 acres of beach, which 

 may in tune push out a rpugli herbage, and thus gradually fit 

 itself for culture." While these gigantic works were going on, 

 the foundation of roads throughout the county was, pushed for- 

 ward with much energy, so that " in the space of twelve years," 

 says Mr Loch, "the county of Sutherland was intersected in 

 some of the most important districts with roads, in point of 

 execution, superior to most roads in England." Previous to 

 1819 the mails were conveyed on horseback from Inverness to 

 Tain, and from thence across the firths by foot-runners ; but in 

 July of that year a daily mail diligence commenced to run be- 

 tween Inverness and Thurso. The counties of Ross and Caith- 

 ness, and the IMarquis of Stafford on behalf of the county of 

 Sutherland, contributed each £200 for two years in aid of this 

 establishment ; and, commenting upon the movement, ]\Ir Loch 

 says, that " in the history of the country there is no parallel of 

 so rapid a change as has thus been effected in this distant corner 

 of the island. I'assincr at once from a state of almost absolute 

 exclusion from the rest of the kingdom to the enjoyment of the 

 incalculal)le advantages of the mail coach system, at a distance 

 of 802 miles from the capital of the kingdom, and 1082 miles 



