APPENDIX. 321 



" Moray " and " Sutherland " faunal areas continues in a 

 somewhat irregular line towards the Crask Inn, on the high- 

 road between Lairg and Altnaharrow. Thence it follows 

 the sky-line or higher ridges of Ben Armine, turning 

 northwards between Lochs-na-Choir and Badenloch, near 

 the sources of the river Helmsdale. Then its course is 

 again easterly by Ben Rossal and Ben Vadda to the High- 

 land Railway at Forsinard and the Caithness March. 



We have said that w T e do not intend at present to insist 

 upon the faunal importance of these three areas of 

 which the county of Sutherland claims a share ; but as 

 these watersheds do occur frequently at high elevations ; 

 and as climatic change, temperature and soil are in no 

 small degree co-existent ; and as geological considerations 

 cannot be overlooked, especially in the west and north- 

 west, as a glance at a geological map wall at once show ; 

 and as we know that faunal characteristics in many other 

 countries, as well as floral, are in a great measure dependent 

 upon these, and upon one another, we desire to indicate 

 the part which our subject county bears in its natural as 

 well as its artificial divisions and boundaries. Many 

 indications of the importance and influence of these natural 

 divisions are already within our grasp, but none, perhaps, 

 of sufficient importance to warrant our occupying more 

 space than we have done in this place. 



Sutherland is, therefore, composed of portions of three 

 faunal areas : — 1st, West Ross, which includes Skye and 

 a part of Inverness, and which is marched on the south 

 by Argyle, and on the east by the backbone of mountains 

 which extends down the west side of Scotland ; 2d, 

 Sutherland, which, in its entirety includes Caithness, and 

 whose rivers run northward to the Atlantic Ocean ; and 

 3d, Moray, a vast faunal tract, whose basin is the Moray 

 Firth and whose catchment includes one-third part of our 

 subject county, and the larger portion of Inverness-shire 

 and Nairn, Elgin and Banff, which is bounded on the 

 south by the faunal areas of Argyle, Tay, and Dee, and on 

 the east by Dee. 



VOL. II. Y 



