54 FIELD AND FERX. 



HEIMSMIE TO MESKLE PERM. ' 



" He once asked a roomfiil of divines why white sheep eat so much more 

 than black sheep. One person advanced it as his opinion that, black being a 

 warmer colour than white, and one which never fails forcibly to attract the 

 sun, black sheep could do with less nutriment than their white contemporaries. 

 At all these profound speculations Dr. Whateley shook his head solemnly, 

 and then proceeded with imperturbable gravity to explain" White sheep eat 

 more, because there are more of them." AECHBISHOP WHATELEY'S LIFE. 



A Walk down Kildonan The Cheviot Flocks of Old Foxes on the 

 Gibbet Mr. Hadwin's Stags' Heads Gideon Rutherfurd Kildonan 

 Churchyard Sutherlandshire Flockmasters Shows in the County 

 Sheep Farming Heather Burning Sporting in Sutherland Strath 

 Brora The Dunrobin Herd The Museum and Kennels The Dun- 

 robin Dairy Climbing Ben Vraggie The Meilde Ferry. 



pjJELMSDALE, which was built by the late Patrick 

 *** Sellar, is not exactly a paradise amid the moil 

 and offal of the herring season, and never was change 

 more welcome than a walk down Kildonan. Sea- 

 gulls seemed to be acting as rural police over acres 

 of nets which were laid out to dry ; while a black bull 

 from Dunrobin, with that especially royal sit of the 

 head which marks the West Highlander, stood and 

 looked the very warden of the strath. We followed 

 the course of the Helmsdale river, where an angler 

 (dressed in a suit in which his college dons would have 

 disowned him) was patiently guiding his fly; and 

 found the ground all lea, with a strong tendency to 



