406 
Sutherland Reclamation. 
take a renewal of his lease at 55. per acre, Mr. Coke, afterwards 
the Earl of Leicester, might never have applied himself to the 
detailed management of a farm, nor have devoted the whole 
energy of his mind to a pursuit that, while it afforded him great 
personal pleasure, enabled him at the same time to confer a 
lasting benefit upon his country. 
Results not less important to the country may fairly be an- 
ticipated from the energy and enthusiasm with which the Duke 
of Sutherland has personally devoted himself to the development 
of a property, comprising, according to the Doomsday Book of 
Scotland, 1,176,343 acres, with a rental of 67,000/., exclusive 
of the 149,870 acres owned by the Duchess, chiefly in the ad- 
joining county of Ross. After the lamented death of his late 
commissioner, Mr. George Loch, in 1877, his Grace kept the 
administration in his own hands for two years. Lieut.-General 
Sir Arnold Kemball has recently become commissioner ; but 
the Duke continues to take great personal interest in the work 
of reclamation. A private engine, which he usually drives him- 
self, carries him from the Dunrobin station wherever work is 
going on near the line of railway ; he is constantly on the move, 
superintending each operation. Some of the machinery used 
has been designed by himself, and some has been modified at 
his suggestion. He is one of many striking exceptions in the 
present day to Bacon's aphorism, that " nobility of birth com- 
monly abateth industry." 
No one took a keener interest in the projects of the Duke than 
tlie late Mr. Kenneth Murray, of Geanies, who had already gained 
much experience in the reclamation of land on his own estate. 
In March 1870, Mr. Murray submitted a full and elaborate 
report on proposed improvements in the district of Shinness. 
This report formed the basis upon which, two years later, opera- 
tions were carried out upon a greatly extended scale. Although 
its estimates were exceeded, and many of its details were modified 
in execution, yet the general truth of its principles and observa- 
tions have been fully confirmed by the results already obtained. 
A granite obelisk crowning the highest eminence oif the 
reclaimed land at Shinness records the loss sustained b}- the un- 
timely death of Mr. Murray, when the scheme that he originated, 
and superintended with the deepest interest and assiduity, was 
but half accomplished. Had he been spared to animate and 
direct the full execution of the plans that he had drawn up with 
such ability and foresight, the result would, in all probability, 
have been far better than it is. 
Mr. Murray's report begins by stating that a very large area 
in the neighbourhood of Lairg, lying westward along the banks 
of Loch Shin, and northward on the banks of the river Tirree, 
