124 THE CLETT. 



" Then we come to that very singular rock, THE 

 CLETT. Who, in reading about Caithness, has not 

 heard of Thurso Clett? In fact, it is our great lion. The 

 Clett is an oblong rock of calcareous slate of about 100 

 feet high. It has been separated by the action of the 

 sea from the adjoining mainland. It is the resort, in 

 summer, of innumerable sea-birds, who breed on the 

 ledges of the cliffs. When sitting on end, in rows, they 

 have not inaptly been compared to rows of bottles in an 

 apothecary's shop. 



" Passing on, the cliffs begin to rise until we reach a 

 monument of white sandstone, erected to the memory of 

 Captain M. A. Slater, who, it is said, either fell down or 

 threw himself down the precipice, and was never after- 

 wards heard of.* 



" A very little past the monument we meet a kind of 

 a ditch, with a,, very little water trickling over the slates 

 at its bottom. In these slates are fish ; fish without end, 

 but very rotten. Going on a little farther, we come to 

 a, spot of rocks washed bare by the wintry storms and 

 ihe dashing sea-spray. There we find a patch of calca- 

 reous slates full of fish ! The flags are for the most part 

 much decayed ; and the fish themselves have long been 

 dead and decayed, and their scales and head bones had 

 lain scattered about, ere the limy mud and dust wrapped 

 them up. 



* It is said that the monument is a sham. The horse on which 

 Captain Slater was mounted, galloped back into Thurso without its 

 rider ; but it is said that Captain Slater was afterwards seen in Aus- 

 tralia. Jealousy was at the bottom of the affair. 



