CAHP. VIII. 



HIGHLAND KOADS. 



375 



mainly to the Lowlands, and had scarcely penetrated the 

 mountainous regions lying towards the north-west. The 

 rugged nature of that part of the country interposed a 

 formidahle barrier to improvement, and the district had 

 thus remained very imperfectly opened up. The only 

 practicable roads were those which had been made by 

 the soldiery after the rebellions of 1715 and '45, through 

 counties which before had been inaccessible eKcept by 

 dangerous footpaths across high and rugged mountains. 

 One was formed along the Great Glen of Scotland, in 

 the line of the present Caledonian Canal, connected 

 with the Lowlands by the road through Glencoe by 

 Tyndrum down the western banks of Loch Lomond ; 

 another, more northerly, connected Fort Augustus with 

 Dunkeld by Blair Athol ; whilst a third, still further to 

 the north and east, connected Fort George with Cupar- 

 in-Angus by Badenoch and Braemar. These roads were 

 about eight hundred miles in extent, and maintained at 

 the public expense. But they were laid out for pur- 

 poses of military occupation rather than for the con- 

 venience of the districts which they traversed. Hence 

 they were comparatively little used, and the Highlanders, 

 in passing from one place to another, for the most 

 part continued to travel by the old cattle tracks along 

 the mountain sides. But the population were so poor 

 and so spiritless, and industry was as yet in so back- 

 ward a state all over the Highlands, that the want of 

 communication was little felt. The state of agricul- 

 ture may be inferred from the fact that an instrument 

 called the cas-chrom ' literally, the " crooked-foot " 



1 The cas-chrom was a rude com- 

 bination of a lever for the removal of 

 rocks, a spade to cut the earth, and a 

 foot-plough to turn it. We annex an 

 illustration of this curious and now 

 obsolete instrument. It weighed about 

 eighteen pounds. In working it, the 

 upper part of the handle, to which the 

 left hand was applied, reached the 



workman's shoulder, and being slightly 

 elevated, the point, shod with iron, 

 was pushed into the ground horizon- 

 tally; the soil being turned over by 

 inclining the handle to the furrow 

 side, at the same time making the 

 heel act as a fulcrum to raise the 

 point of the instrument. In turning 

 up unbroken ground, it was first em- 



