THE HIGHLANDS. 329 



underwood and stones at great expense, and thoroughly 

 improved by means of sea-weed and all kinds of artificial 

 manure, were giving a rental of as much as 30s. per acre. 

 Harbours, mines, fisheries, all had succeeded. From his 

 lofty feudal tower of Dunrobin, which overlooks this 

 part of the coast, the descendant of the Mhoir-Fhear- 

 Chattaibhs encouraged a scene of active industry, which 

 his ancestors never dreamt of. 



In the interior of the country the old race of black- 

 faced sheep had almost disappeared, and were succeeded 

 mostly by the cheviot. Now two hundred thousand 

 sheep are pastured on a surface which formerly fed only 

 a fourth of that number. What an admirable property 

 this is in the sheep, of adapting itself to all sorts of 

 soil and climate ! The same animal, which is the chief 

 wealth of the Arab on the sandy deserts of Saharah, 

 enables us to turn to profitable account the rocks and 

 peat-mosses of the extreme north ! M. de Gourcy says : 

 " One cannot help being surprised, in passing through 

 these solitary regions, to find them covered with splendid 

 sheep, giving every year 5 Ib. of pretty fair wool, and, 

 with no other food than what they find there summer and 

 winter, weighing alive, at three years and a half, two 

 hundred Ib. English." The hills serve for summer pas- 

 turage, and the glens or valleys for the winter. Dur- 

 ing the long nights even, the flocks remain exposed to all 

 weathers, with no other shelter than what a few birch 

 trees afford. The only protection they receive against 

 the extreme wet is an application or smearing of tar and 

 butter in the month of October. 



As for human inhabitants, there are none. If the 

 sound of the bagpipe is heard among the rocks, it is no 

 longer the gathering-call of warlike mountaineers, but 

 the more peaceful amusement of a shepherd, who, in 



