24 
DESCRIPTION OF THE PHYSICAL FEATURES 
of wet flow-ground, intersected by burns which fall wholly into 
the Brora river, or rather that branch of it which is called the 
Blackwater. 
The other hills of importance are, Ben Uarie, 1923 feet, and 
Ben a Veallich, 1936 feet, in the parishes of Loth and Kildonan ; 
Ben Smeorale, 1667 feet, and Ben Horn, 1712, both in the parish 
of Clyne; and Ben Bhraggie, in the parish of Golspie, 1282 feet. 
None of these hills present that rugged, wild, and rocky appear- 
ance that characterises those in the west ; they are for the most 
part smooth and rounded, the higher ones in the centre of the 
county covered towards the top with a coarse grass, which shows 
a vivid green in the sunlight ; the others, nearer the south and the 
east, have heather growing up to their summits, which gets coarser 
and more stunted the higher it ascends. In some places, where 
the ground is sufficiently wet, what is called " deer's hair " grass 
appears, but this is more characteristic of the low, wet flow- 
grounds. 
Although we have only mentioned the principal hiUs, it must 
not be understood that the rest of the county is quite flat, — far 
from it : the whole of the south-eastern part, extending along the 
Caithness march, and from the sea to the centre of the county, 
consists of moderately high hilly ground, highest near the sea, and 
gradually lowering in height inland until it ends in those large 
lochs and flat wet flows out of which the principal rivers of the 
county rise. This ground contains the most productive grouse- 
moors of Sutherland, some of them rivalling the best that Perth- 
shire or Inverness-shire can show, though of late years disease, 
from which they are still suffering, has made sad havoc amongst 
the birds. 
We have mentioned the word " flow " several times. A flow 
is a wet tract of ground, generally flat, though such can exist on 
a gentle slope where there has been no artificial drainage : this is 
covered by a short kind of grass, which in autumn assumes nearly 
the colour of a red-deer, hence its trivial name " deer's-hair grass." 
Scattered through this tract are small ponds, locally called " bru- 
lochans," some deep, others shallow ; in the former a pair of red- 
