486 Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society. 



notes the stonier, barer, and less productive land ; and though 

 the lochs bear water-lilies and their leaves upon their surface, 

 scarcely any birch growth is seen upon their sides. Altogether 

 the country is drearier, more sad-looking than Assynt. This 

 dreariness increases as the traveller passes on leaving Rhiconich 

 behind, and when he reaches the highest part of the road 

 between that and Durness, about Gualinn Shooting Lodge, at 

 the head of the melancholy Strath of Dionard. The traveller 

 has also seen less of the sea, the road winding between the 

 stony ice-scraped hills, and traversing shallow bogs in the 

 hollows, out of sight for the most part, of the sea. Passing 

 Gualinn House, which rests on the crest of the watershed, 

 we drove slowly on past the little fished lochs of Scarbhach 

 More and Loch na Sgeir, and descended into the dark valley. 

 Dismal, indeed, and weird is this wild valley of Dionard or 

 Grudie, the shadows falling from cloud and hill-top in uni- 

 versal gloom on this the day of our first acquaintance with it, 

 the sole redeeming light being that of the winding river 

 Grudie, as it caught up a few last rays from the northern 

 sky, and wearily wended its sluggish course seaward. I 

 know of no valley in all Sutherland so weird in its utter 

 loneliness as this ; and a silence as of death reigns over and 

 around it. Looking back after traversing some 6 miles of 

 its length, I could see, perched like a dove on a sloping 

 house-top, the Lodge of Gualinn, looking no bigger than a 

 man's hand against the sky. 



At last, skirting the Kyle of Durness, and then crossing 

 over to the eastward, we landed at the Cape Wrath Hotel of 

 Durness, and were welcomed by our kind and genial host — 

 Mr Dunnet. 



The next day I took a leisurely walk round that part of 

 the coast included by the Far-out Head peninsula. There is 

 nothing remarkable in this coast to distinguish it from the 

 general characteristics of the north-west coasts, but the view 

 from above the hotel takes in all the more important bits of 

 scenery. At Seanachastail — where there are supposed to be 

 visible the remains of an old castle — a good view can be had 

 of the shore and of the somewhat prominent stack of Clach- 

 beag. Further on, and nearly opposite Clachbeag, another 



