CHAP. vi. THE NORTHERN MIDSUMMER. 59 



time to time, on the spot. He determined to master 

 the entire subject. He mapped out the country into 

 districts, and resolved carefully to examine each of them 

 in turn. It was a long and arduous work, but he suc- 

 cessfully carried out his purpose. At length the plants 

 of Caithness, from one end of the county to the other 

 from the Morven hills in the south to Dunnet Head 

 in the north from Noss Head in the east to Halladale 

 Head in the west became as familiar to him as the 

 faces of familiar friends. 



The banks of the river Thurso were among his favourite 

 haunts. He searched the valley in its remotest nooks, 

 from its source in Bencheilt to its entrance into the 

 sea at Thurso. The flats along its serpentine course 

 abound in plants and grasses, which he scanned with the 

 true naturalist's eye. During the long summer nights, 

 when " day never darkens into mirk," he would make 

 journeys of forty or fifty miles, for the purpose of gather- 

 ing some favourite plant in its far-off native habitat. 

 He would return home in glory, bringing with him a 

 stem of grass, a flower, or a bulb. 



During midsummer time in the north, it is light 

 nearly all the night through. The sun slightly descends 

 below the horizon, but the light still remains. Farther 

 north, the sun is seen at midnight. When it rises in 

 Caithness, the morning is a prolonged dawn. An eloquent 

 writer says, " The earth is most beautiful at dawn ; but 

 so very few people see it, and the few that do are 

 almost all of them labourers, whose eyes have no sight 

 for that wonderful peace, and coolness, and unspeakable 



