THURSO TO HELMSDALE. 45 



the black Austrian pine, that we began to doubt the 

 saying that there is " no natural wood north of Ber- 

 riedale." It is given to few men in Caithness to sit 

 under the shadow of the trees they have planted; 

 and this felicity has been attained by Sir John Sin- 

 clair (whose zeal for improvement is. nearly as ar- 

 dent as his great namesake's), through trenching, 

 draining, and enclosing, in the first instance, and 

 then forming plantations in masses, and transplant- 

 ing from them after eight or nine years' growth. 

 Sheep and cattle both thrive bravely with such 

 shelter ; and to this, and a very generous diet, 

 " never allowing the animal to retrograde," no medi- 

 cated food, and no bleeding and physicking except 

 in cases of unmistakable inflammation, much of Sir 

 John's success as a breeder may be traced. 



It is nearly thirty years since he followed in Mr. 

 Home's track, and introduced shorthorn bulls prin- 

 cipally from Thornington and Sittyton. Galloway 

 cows were his fancy a few years later, and from one 

 of them he bred Mr. Owen of Blesintoii county 

 Wicklow's gold medal bull. Mr. Miller, of Lower 

 Downreay, still holds by " the heavy blacks," and 

 uses an Angus bull; but Sir John merely keeps 

 black cowSj gentle and simple, as the two breeds are 

 sometimes called for distinction, for the sake of a 

 capital cross with the shorthorn. The Galloways are 

 perhaps better suited to a county which has, as a 

 herdsman observed to us, " sometimes three climates 

 a day." Both the first and second crosses with the 



