PHYSICAL FEATURES. 



39 



the country, few houses can be supplied by gravitation, pumping 

 from wells being the only (and very laborious) way of supplying the 

 cisterns. 



Along this coast-line, from the Carron to the Alness, there are 

 no rivers of importance, and only a few burns of any size, the 

 Balnagown river being the largest — the water-supply of even a 

 small town like Tain being a matter of consideration, so scant is 

 the amount available. The hills on the east side of the road 

 between Struie and Alness range from 600 or 700 to 1000 feet in 

 height ; they are mostly very dry, with few springs, yet Grouse do 

 well on them, and they are admirably adapted for planting, and 

 many of them have already large extents of thriving firs. 



The whole of the land adjoining the coast-line, as far as it 

 can be so utilised, is cultivated, and with very good results in 

 most cases. This belt is of a very good average width, being only 

 interrupted to any serious extent at the hamlet of Clachnaharry, 

 close to Inverness, where the sea comes up very close to the foot 

 of the hills. Up the valleys of Strathpeffer, Beauly, and the 

 Conon, arable land extends for a long distance, though in the case 

 of the Beauly much good land was temporarily injured by the 

 disastrous floods of January 1892. 



Most of these valleys contain magnificent trees of both hard 

 wood and ornamental pine — not merely the monotonous squares of 

 Scots firs — especially in the policies of the older mansion-houses, 

 such as Balnagown, Conon, Beaufort, etc., and perhaps there are no 

 finer ones than those about Castle Leod, the climate and soil of 

 Strathpeffer being apparently well suited to the growth of these 

 forest giants. Almost every description of tree is to be found 

 about the old castle, itself an object of the greatest interest, with its 

 ivy-clad walls. It is one of the oldest inhabited houses in the 

 north, and, from not having been added to, its old characteristics 

 are very easily seen. 



Between Nigg on the north side, and Fort-George on the 

 south, the sea makes two great semi-circular sweeps inland, the 

 northern one forming the Cromarty Firth, which trends south- 

 west, and the southern one, trending south-west and west, forms 

 those of Inverness and Beauly. At their inland termini the 



