APPENDIX. 317 



Rosehall and the Kyle of Sutherland, a few crofters' 

 patches occur at the mouth of the Cassley river, hut 

 thereafter only a patch or two at Oykel and Aultnagealgach, 

 at Inchnadamph, and at each of the more inland situations 

 where the traveller can rest or tarry. Around the 

 villages of Knockan and Elphin, in the south-west of the 

 county, and along one shore of Cama loch, the crofters 

 have some more land under cultivation, and here the 

 common bunting breeds in small numbers, though rarer 

 elsewhere in Assynt. Along the shore -line of Ardvar 

 and Stoir, at Kirkaig Bay, and around Loch Inver, 

 patches of potato land, in the usual "lazy-bed" form of 

 cultivation, are numerous, dotted about amongst the 

 rocky ground often close to the sea-shore, or in larger 

 masses in the hollows more inland. A somewhat larger 

 extent of cultivated land lies towards the Point and 

 Lighthouse of Stoir. Around Scourie are some neatly 

 tended croft-lands, growing good hay and potatoes, and at 

 Durness and Tongue considerable extent of grass-lands 

 and crops. All these, limited though they are in extent, 

 have a decided influence upon the flora, and consequently 

 on the insect and bird life, and it is interesting to note 

 that for many years the few acres of cultivated land at 

 Inchnadamph produced regularly a covey of partridges, 

 until finally they disappeared after the severe winters of 

 1878-79 and 1880-1. 



In the same way, trees are not abundant in the west of 

 the county. After leaving the extensive pine -woods of 

 Rosehall and the wooded valleys of the Shin and Cassley, 

 the traveller skirts the river Oykel for some distance, 

 passing through some old birch-wood on either side of 

 the road, where bog -myrtle grows in large quantities 

 beneath, or in the more open spaces. A few oaks occur 

 also along this route. But all wood ceases as one 

 leaves the valley of the Oykel beyond Oykel Bridge, 

 whose banks are skirted by a line of stunted alder. 

 Thereafter it is only in sheltered nooks of water-worn 

 ravines or in the crevices of rocks that perhaps a few 

 mountain-ash or straggling ivy find a foothold. The 



