THE WILDS OF SUTHERLAND. 



ALTNAHAEKA DUKNESS SCOURIE INCHNADAMFF. 



MY first sight of Sutherland was in the summer 

 of 1823 ; but what changes have these forty-three 

 years wrought on this remote and primitive land ! 

 So far as I remember, there were then no white- 

 faced sheep, and the moors and mountains were 

 grazed by the old-fashioned blackfaces, inter- 

 spersed with groups of " black cattle," the pic- 

 turesque hirsel of the glens. 



The savage precipices had tenfold interest as 

 the constant haunts of golden eagles or peregrine 

 falcons, while most of the sea-cliffs or lonely 

 mountain tarns were associated with eyries of the 

 erne or the osprey. 



The rank and luxuriant heather had not then 



