CAITHNESS. 65 



steep and rugged, they are yet clad with fine pasture, 

 while many of their bases are well wooded with natural 

 birch and hazel, affording good winter shelter for the 

 deer. Although the hills do not display peaked and 

 jagged outlines, they are yet steep and sterile, rising 

 to their highest altitude of 2,313 feet on the summit 

 of Morven, or the Big Hill. The lowest forest ground 

 is chiefly peat, moss and heather, well cut up with 

 water-courses, which are frequently the only friendly 

 cover the stalker finds, and along which, clad in 

 the yellow and white mixture found best suited to 

 the ground, on hands and knees the stalking party 

 must make their way to the quarry. On the north 

 the forest is bounded as well as sheltered by an 

 almost unbroken range of high hills, comprising the 

 Skerabins, or Hill of Scars, 1,500 feet. The Maiden 

 Pap, Morven, and Cnoc-nearnach, or Hill of the 

 Irishman, so named 'from a tradition that a native 

 of the Emerald Isle once perished on it. Between 

 Morven and Torbreach, and near the top of the 

 forest, there is a sanctuary of some 2,000 acres. 



K 



