OF SUTHERLAND AND CAITHNESS. 
55 
pruned and bent till they look on the north-west sides like great 
well-kept hedges ; few trees seem able to reach to a greater height 
than about 20 or 30 feet. At Brawl we saw the highest trees 
in the county — beech, elm, and oak — until we came south to 
Langwell and Berriedale. Still, these oa^es have their influence 
on bird-life, as our list undoubtedly shows, many species only 
of late resident in the county, • such as the spotted flycatcher, 
being found in these patches of wood. As already explained, 
it seems hopeless to plant with any expectation of timber, but 
if planting were prosecuted on a larger scale, much might be 
done by affording shelter from the prevailing winds. The shallow 
soil spread over the hard and almost horizontal layers of rock 
beneath, prevents a healthy downward growth of roots, every 
fissure or crack, and even the flat surface, proving so many channels 
for running water to rot the laterally spreading fibres and rootlets. 
But on leaving this geological formation for the more suitable 
and deeper soil towards the south-east, we at once find large and 
perfect trees growing in the valleys, and beautifying the scenery 
and rapidly affecting the local bird-life. It is not therefore, 
perhaps, strange to find that people of cultured tastes and habits 
— the lairds of the ISTorth Caithness estates — do not, as a rule, live 
much amongst their northern wind-swept xiplands, but prefer the 
sunnier south. We passed many uninhabited country-houses 
between Wick and Dunbeath, such as Ackergill, Thrumster, Hemp- 
riggs, Ulbster, Clytli, the first inhabited one we met with being 
Dunbeath Castle, the property of Mr. Thomson Sinclair. The dull 
bleakness, and utter want of inland beauty of nine-tenths of the 
county, must act as a strong deterrent, often possibly a nameless 
horror, to the life and social intercourse among the gentry. Caith- 
ness, as we are told in a Handhooh to Thurso and its Vicinity^ 
includes three estates of more than 40,000 acres, or something less 
than half the total area of the county, the largest and finest being 
that of the Duke of Portland, viz., 81,605 acres. 
The south-east corner of Caithness differs widely from the rest 
^ Handbook to Thurso and its Vicinity, and Guide to the County of Caithness, 
p. 101. 
