84 Improvements carry ng on at Caithuefs in 1 8o2. Feb. 



a week. * Some villages are planned out for carrying on 

 the filherles, and different branches of manufa<£lure. An 

 application has been made to Government, requeiling 

 that Circuit Courts may be held, at lealt once a year, 

 to the north of Invcrncfs, which, in various refpe6ls, 

 would promote the improvement of the more northern 

 counties ; and a petition will be prefented, as foon as 

 the new Parliament affembles, complaining of the de- 

 grading fituation in which the county is placed, fend- 

 ing, only alternately with Bute, a member to the Imperial 

 Parliament, and, confequently, being every feven years 

 totally unreprefented. 



Such are the meafures now carrying on in tills Northern Dlf- 

 trid. If perfevered in, and fuccefsfully carried through, there 

 can be little doubt that the County of Caithnefs, however re- 

 mote, and at prefent almoft inacceihble, will foon reach a very 

 hii^h degree of profperity and of improvement. S. 



TO THE CONDUCTOR OF THE FARMER's MAGAZINE. 



Sir, 



In confirm.ation of what is faid by your ingenious correfpondent 

 A. S. (vol. ill. p. 446) concerning the recent introduction oS 

 fquirrcls into this country, I beg leave to hand you the fubftance 

 of a cafe which cami^- before the Balllie-court of the metropolis a- 

 bout the beginning of lall century. — A gentleman in India having 

 fent home a fqii^rrel to his friend in Edinburgh, the fame, after 

 being landed at London, was fliipped aboard one of the Leith 

 traders ; but unluckily the cage, in which the animal was forward- 

 ed, having been fome how or other left open, it got out, run a- 

 bout the decks, and finally fell into the i^-i^ and was drowned. 

 An action of damages was inftantly brought againft the fhipmaf- 

 ter before the Baillies -, and one of them, a man of great fagacity, 

 interrogated the flilpmafter, * "Why he did not clip the bird's 

 wings ? ' * Pleafe your honour, ' replied the flilpmafter, * the 

 minimal was a quadruped. ' ' Quadruped here, quadruped there, 

 no matter ; I decern that you Ihall pay the bird. ' And the deci- 

 fion was thought fo juft, that no advocation followed. Yours, &c. 



An Antiquary. 



* This plan has been agreed to, and will be a great convenience and 

 foufce of improvement to the northern dlftrlfts of the kingdom. Were 

 the poft to go by the Highland road, and on horfcback to Thurfo, 

 which It Is to be hoped will foon be the cafe, a letter might be conveyed 

 from Edinburgh to Thurfo In two days. In dead of live or fix, the time 

 required at prcft nt. What an advantage would It not be, to have fo 

 fpeedy a circulation of intelligence from on<j end of the kingdom to the 

 •ther ! 



