Sutherland Reclamation. 
401 
that gave the first great impetus to progress in the county. 
The want of access and of the means of external and internal 
communication had hitherto prevented the entrance and advance 
of the arts of civilization. In the year 1803 an Act was passed 
by which Government offered to advance one-half of the expense 
of certain roads and bridges to be formed in the Highlands, 
provided that the other moiety were furnished by the counties 
within the operation of the Act. The two chief natural ob- 
stacles that had separated Sutherland from the rest of Scotland 
were the Firths of Dornoch and Loch Fleet : the first was 
spanned by Telford's great iron bridge at Bonar ; the second by 
the Mound, and a bridge fitted with strong valve gates by which 
the tide was excluded ; and thus a large area of good land was 
reclaimed from the sea, at the same time that a road was carried 
into a district that previously could only be reached by making 
a wide detour. Within twelve years the most important dis- 
tricts of the county were traversed by roads better than most of 
those in England. A postal service was next established, and 
the modern visitor finds that the post-houses then built have 
been gradually developed into admirably conducted and com- 
fortable inns. 
JNleanwhile, as each district of the interior was cleared of 
crofters it was let as a sheep-farm, sometimes to a man who 
brought with him, from a Border farm, experience in the manage- 
ment of Cheviot sheep on land not dissimilar to that which he 
adopted as his new home. More frequently, however, the new 
tenant was one of the native gentlemen who rose superior to 
the prejudices that naturally prevailed among his own class — 
a class that for many years had enjoyed the special privileges 
and dignity of tacksmen. Those whose intelligence and 
liberality of mind made them ready to assist their landlord in 
carrying out the great scheme of reformation, gradually replaced 
those Avhose selfishness and dulness prevented them from seeing 
that their own interests were identical with the public good. 
The first adventurers in sheep-farming in Sutherland were 
Messrs. Atkinson and Marshal, residing near the river Aln, 
in Northumberland. They adopted in the north, with one 
important difference, the same system that, in common with 
other Border farmers, they pursued in the south. The sheep 
were divided into hirsels, or distinct flocks ; but, whereas in 
the south there were but three hirsels — of hoggs, wethers, and 
ewes, the ewes giving their first lamb at two years old, and the 
wethers being sent to the feeder at two years and a half old — 
in Sutherland they divided their sheep into four or five hirsels — 
of hoggs, wethers, gimmers, and ewes ; thus the yearling ewes, 
instead of being sent to the ewe-flock at once, were sent for 
