210 LOCH HAELLAN. CHAP. xiv. 



but indeed every facility for the sea entering the country 

 and drowning Caithness, were there only some upheav- 

 ing agency to hitch it up some 100 feet or so. It was 

 simply to test this, that had brought me thus far. The 

 road winds up among the hills hollow, all hollow : 



MOUTH OF STRATH HALLADALE RIVER. 



hence, I suppose, the name Strath Hollowdale, or 

 Halkdale half Highland and half Norse. The strath 

 was, in my opinion, once an outlet of the sea, just as 

 Loch Tongue and Loch Erriboll are now." 



His sixth exploratory ramble was one of the most 

 interesting of all. He set out a little before two o'clock 

 in the morning, and went towards Loch Haellan, about 

 ten miles east of Thurso. He observed how small an 



