COUNTIES OF KOSS AND CEOMARTY. 131 



the works. First of all, a broad service road, 10 miles in length, 

 was run right back through the centre of the land to facilitate 

 operations ; and as the work proceeded, about other 40 miles of 

 accommodation roads were constructed. The roughness of the 

 land made ploughing impossible, and therefore the first turning- 

 over had to be done by the pick and spade. The land having 

 been thus trenched, drains were then cut, and the stones up- 

 turned in the trenching were utilised in the drains. The leading 

 drains were all made in the natural hollows of the ground, how- 

 ever winding these might be, and in this way a cutting of 3 feet 

 in most of the hollows was equal to 5 or 6 feet of depth on 

 either side. Immediately behind the trenchers companies cleared 

 off the surplus stones, and this necessitated blasting on an 

 extensive scale. The stones were carried to the edges of the 

 fields, and used in the building of dykes, an operation that went 

 on simultaneously with the other improvements. Building was 

 also begun very early, and thus trenching, draining, stone-clear- 

 ing, dyking, road-making, and house-buildings were all proceed- 

 ing apace. In his report Mr Mackenzie says — " To a casual 

 observer, when the works were in progress, the expenditure might 

 appear profuse, and perhaps reckless. Instead, however, of this 

 being the case, the works were executed upon the principles of 

 strictest economy. In the apparent confusion of trenchers, drainers, 

 dykers, blasters, masons, carpenters, &c., there was the most per- 

 fect order ; and the carrying out of a design, although each opera- 

 tion was separate in itself, still all of them were yoked in heartiest 

 co-operation ; and to this feature of the works must be largely 

 attributed their success as a whole." The works were almost all 

 executed under small contracts, the labourers having been divided 

 into small contracting companies, ranging from two to twelve in 

 number. But Mr Mackenzie has described the modus operandi 

 so fully in his excellent report, that anything more than a general 

 sketch of what has been done would be out of place here. True, 

 the Ardross improvements were little more than half completed 

 in 1858, but the lines laid down at the very commencement, and 

 detailed so clearly by Mr Mackenzie, have been strictly adhered 

 to all along. 



The draining of a large flat of swampy boggy land on the estate 

 of Delny, one of the little properties attached to Ardross, was so 

 difficult and so interesting an undertaking that a short notice of 

 the method adopted might be acceptable. The greater part of 

 the flat was at one time a common among five surrounding pro- 

 prietors, the tenants of whom cut their peats from this common 

 up, in fact, till it was acquired by Mr Matheson. The Burn of 

 Delny, which has its source in the valley of Strathy, near Strath- 

 rory, and passes through the loch of Aclinacloicli, at one time 

 winded in a circuitous course through this boggy flat, frequently 



