220 



CAITHNESS. 



Caithness r.nd by manufacturing and carrying the produce to 

 market. He was also to produce peats for fuel, 

 straw-bags for carrying grain or rr.eal, and hair-ropes 

 for drawing the plough or for tethers; to keep a 

 certain number of cattle for the landlord during the 

 winter season ; to pay vicarage of lamb, wool, &c. ; 

 and :. certain number of fowls and eggs, which in the 

 Highland district was converted into veal, kid, but- 

 ter, and cheese ; and on the sea-coast, into fish and 

 oil. Sometimes even a certain quantity of spun lint 

 and woollen yarn was annually exacted for the lady. 

 The time and labour of the tenant were thus almost 

 completely at the disposal of his landlord, which 

 occasioned his own affairs to be either hurried or ne- 

 glected. This practice, we are told, universally 

 prevailed throughout the county, till only within 

 thirty or forty years ago; and, according to Sir John 

 Sinclair's view of the agriculture of this county, in 

 1794, out of its extent of 441,600 acres, only 93,600 

 could be accounted productive land, including in 

 this, not only land in tillage, but also such mea- 

 dows and pastures as were reckoned at all valu- 

 able. 



But by the spirited and liberal exertions of the pre- 

 sent landlords, cultivation has now assumed a very 

 different aspect. Many of the waste lands have been 

 brought under crop ; and the miserable fences of 

 iurf which separated the waste from the arable lands, 

 have given place to substantial stone dykes, with which 

 some of the farms are now completely enclosed. Con- 

 siderable improvements have also been made in the 

 pasture farms by the substitution of sheep instead of 

 small Highland cattle, which has greatly increased 

 the value of property in this part of the country. 



'Great exertions have been made here for impro- 

 ving the roads, an object of essential importance to 

 .the success of agriculture ; and a liberal aid has been 

 obtained from government, on condition that the pro- 

 prietors shall expend money to a proportional amount 

 for this beneficial purpose. Though this county is 

 very destitute of wood, -it is probable that it was 

 not always so, as considerable quantities of large fir 

 and other trees have been found in the morasses, and 

 .even in some places not far from the sea coast. The 

 attempts, however, which have lately been made for 

 raising plantations, have in general failed, and a few 

 woods of birch is all that now remains, except in the 

 .Highland district, where there are some considerable 

 forests. Those of Morravins and Berrydale, afford 

 abundance of red deer and roebucks. Hares, rab- 

 bits, grouse, heathcocks, partridges, snipes, plover, 

 and all kinds of game, are in great plenty through- 

 out the county ; also swans, wild geese, sea-ducks, 

 wood- cocks, and birds called snow fleets, about the 

 size of a sparrow, exceedingly fat and delicious, which 

 are very numerous in winter, but always take their 

 departure in April. Prodigious quantities of scarfs, 

 marrots, fraiks, and other sea-fowl, hatch in the 

 rocks of Duncan's Bay and Stroma, whose eggs and 

 young, during the season, supply many of the inha- 

 bitants with food. The rivers and lakes abound with 

 trout, salmon, and eels; and Mr Pennant informs us, 

 that at Thurso, 2500 salmon were once taken at one 

 tide. Great numbers of seals are killed on this coast 

 in the caverns that opea ist the geiu These ca- 



verns are narrow at the mouth, but in the inside lofty 

 and spacious, and run some hundred yards under 

 ground. The seal hunters enter them in small boats, 

 and lighting torches as soon as they land, with loud 

 shouts alarm the animals, which they kill v ith clubs 

 as they attempt to pass. This, however, is rather a 

 hazardous employment ; for should the wind blow 

 hard from the sea, these adventurers are inevitably 

 lost. 



The black cattle, which were formerly sent from 

 Caithness to the south, amounted in some years to 

 nearly 20,000 ; but this number has of late been very 

 considerably diminished by the introduction of sheep 

 farming into the upper districts of the county. The 

 swine, which are reared here in great numbers, are 

 of a small breed, have long erect ears, and most sa- 

 vage tusks ; and though the native Highlanders ab- 

 hor the flesh of this animal, yet they have always 

 abounded in the lower part of the county. The 

 chief manufactures of Caithness are linen yarn and 

 leather. A considerable herring fishery was furmer- 

 ly carried on in the summer months, in which it is 

 calculated that from six to fourteen thousand barrels 

 were annually taken ; and it might have become an 

 important branch of industry and commerce, had not 

 the detention of the bounties in 1792 given it a fatal 

 check, and ruined some of the adventurers. 



Small veins of iron and lead ores have been dis- 

 covered in this county, but not in such circumstances 

 as to induce the proprietors to work them. Con- 

 siderable quantities of white mundick, and a slender 

 vein of yellow mundick ; also a regular vein of heavy 

 spar, mixed with lead and crystals, three feet in 

 breadth, have been found near Thurso. A copper 

 mine was once begun to be wrought near the old 

 castle of Wick, but was soon afterwards dropped. 

 There are plenty of whinstone, granite, and free- 

 stone ; likewise limestone and marl. Various at- 

 tempts have been made for the discovery of coal, but 

 though these have been conducted by persons well 

 skilled in the business, and long persevered in, they 

 have hitherto proved unsuccessful. A mineral, re- 

 sembling this substance, has indeed been found near 

 the surface, which seems to be an earthy substance, 

 impregnated with volatile inflammable matter. It 

 emits a hot vivid flame when burning, but without 

 much dissolution of parts, or diminution of size, after 

 it becomes extinct. 



Among the antiquities of this county are to be 

 found a variety of singular structures, called Picts 

 houses. They are generally of a circular form, ri- 

 sing into the shape of a cone, with its top somewhat 

 blunted, and the walls of the larger kind are nine or 

 ten feet in thickness, and surrounded by a broad di ep 

 ditch, and a sort of rampart. These buildings are 

 usually placed on the brinks of precipitous rocks, 

 and in the skirts of sandy bays ; and often stretch 

 from one headland to another, evidently so arranged 

 as to communicate with each othi r. Besides t:iese 

 are John o* Groat's house, whose traditional hisiory 

 is so well known ; and the castles of Acbaistal, Berry- 

 dale, Braal, Dirlet, and Lochmore. 



The language spoken by the people of Caithness 

 has always been the same as that of the south of 

 Scotland, except among the hills on the borders ef 



