OF SUTHERLAND AND CAITHNESS. 
43 
to tlie county that the formation of good roads throughout has 
effected. Quoting Mr. Loch, we find the following passage which 
can scarcely miss being of value and interest to our readers : 
" Passing at once, from a state of almost absolute exclusion from 
the rest of the kingdom, to the enjoyment of the incalculable 
advantages of the mail-coach system, at a distance of 802 miles 
from the capital of the Empire, and 1082 from Falmouth, the 
furthest extremity in the other direction to which this establish- 
ment extends." This conveyance Mr. Loch tells us began running 
in July 1819. 
DESCRIPTIVE OF THE PHYSICAL FEATURES OF 
CAITHNESS. 
Perhaps no description ever written of Caithness is so concise, 
terse, and vigorous as that expressed in a few words by Professor 
Heddle of St. Andrews. He says : " Caithness stands apart from 
all the counties of Scotland — pre-eminent in monotony, pre-eminent 
in ugliness, pre-eminent in dearth of minerals. ... A land of 
flatness, flags, and fossil fishes ; the glories of colour and lustre 
and form are unknown to it. . . . Its two chief headlands have been 
mantled and rendered somewhat more respectable by the upper sand- 
stones of Hoy ; but about the best that can be said of the county 
as a whole is, that its geology is flags, and its history is fislies." ^ 
Passing over part of the great " flow " land of Sutherland 
already described {antea, page 24), and thence about four miles to 
the east of Forsinard, we cross the county march between Suther- 
land and Caithness, and at the same point cross the boundary 
between the faunal areas of " Sutherland " and " Moray." Rising 
with a considerable incline over the separating ridge, and then 
descending, we look into the county of Caithness. Far as the eye 
can range, vast flows and mosses, dreary and dead-looking, roll 
away in utter absence of colour. Only a few slight elevations as 
1 Tlie Mineralo<jical Magazine. 
