OP SUTHERLAND AND CAITHNESS. 
41 
laver, patches of potato laud, in the usual " lazy-bed " form of 
cultivation, are numerous, dotted about amongst the rocky ground 
often close to the sea-shore, or in larger masses in the hollows more 
inland. A somewhat larger extent of cultivated land lies towards 
the Point and Lighthouse of Stoir. Around Scourie are some 
neatly tended croft-lands, growing good hay and potatoes, and at 
Durness and Tongue considerable extent of grass-lands and crops. 
All these, limited though they are in extent, have a decided in- 
fluence upon the flora, and consequently on the insect and bird 
life ; and it is interesting to note that for many years the few acres 
of cultivated land at Inchnadamph produced regularly a covey of 
partridges, until finally they disappeared after the severe winters 
of 1878-79 and 1880-81. 
In the same way, trees are not abundant in the west of the 
county. After leaving the extensive pine-woods of Eosehall and 
the wooded valleys of the Shin and Cassley, the high road skirts 
the river Oykel for some distance, passing through some old birch- 
wood on either side of the road, where bog-myrtle grows in large 
quantities beneath, or in the more open spaces. A few oaks 
occur also along this route. But all wood ceases as one leaves the 
valley of the Oykel beyond Oykel Bridge, whose banks are skirted 
by a line of stunted alder. Thereafter it is only in sheltered nooks 
of water-worn ravines or in the crevices of rocks that perhaps a few 
mountain-ash trees and straggling ivy find a foothold. The lovely 
valley of the iEnaig river, however, retains a well-wooded character 
for a considerable distance up the glen. A dreary, often misty 
drive, over the great moor which stretches across the watershed 
between Oykel Bridge and Aultnagealgach, and then descends 
rapidly towards Loch Assynt, brings us again to a few patches of 
wood at Inchnadamph, which have been planted round the farm- 
house of Stronchrubie, the manse, and the hotel of Inchnadamph ; 
whilst amongst the deep crevices of the noble limestone cliffs of 
Stronchrubie, some fine natural hollies and thick-stemmed ivy give 
shelter to the ring-ouzel, whose notes come clear and distinct to 
the traveller's ear as he passes along the road below. Then come 
the more thickly wooded slopes and knolls, and heights and 
