The implements of that numerous (clan are, in general, extremely rude and inefficient•: ploughs and harrows, entirely of wood, excepting some thin plates of iron nailed to the sole of the fanner, to • prevent its wearing by the friction of the soil, with four ponies or oxen yoked abreast, attended by a driver who walks backwards ncterding to the •n cient. custom ; seldem even a ttinnewrog machine to separate their grain flora the chaff,-..and fences formed by a ditch and sod-Wall. Their crops are beer and oats, alternately on the infield 'Or d? loge lands, and grey oats successively, fer four or five years, on the outfield or inferior hied. • wheat has been tried by a few proprietors, bat it does not succeed so well in that climate as to entourage its extensive culture. Turnips are beginning to atttaet notice among the irmed tenants, and to coMe into the regular course of cropping 'on large farms and potatoes are now cultivated with the plough, tit well as with the spade, in every part of the county. The cattle in Caithness have been long the worst breed in Scotland ; but a considerable improves meat has been lately effected on some estates, hy Thee of balls from Argyleshire end the Writ ern Isles. Oxen continue to be 'worked tithe plough and harrow. With the exception of •1 lb* Woad; of the Cheviot breed, the sheep are of the =tient tete of the island, mostly horned, bearing a white fleet*, bet 'coarser then the 'wool of Shetlirld, 'and *eV& ing from seven 'to ten lbs. per quarter. Sinee horse Filoughs have been partially .e.stliblilihed,'sdthe attention seems to be paid to the breed of horses, . though the garrote front 41 to 14 bands high, are still by ahr the most nutnerdus description. The valve breed if swine is ihort tedied, and ge iterally of a redish or grey colour ; there are a few black, but the grey are reckoned the best.
in a dont where the want of coal is added to the many disadvantages under vihicli it labours from 'its soil, climate, and other circumstances, it is not to be expected that manufactures or commerce should have acquired any footing. A tannery, •eaChfield, and woollen factory, were long ago un, dertaken under the direction, and chiefly at the ex .pence, of Sir John Sinclair, of which. only the first has.been found profitable. A brewery is still car ried on at Thurso; and ropework in the tillage of Castletown. In winter 1810, about 250 *omen and girls were eniployed in Thurso plaiting gnaw for ladies' bonnetawdie straw-plait being re turned to London, limn whence the straw itself is imported. Caitlin:es exports t few 'cattle and sheep., but of the former not a tenth part of 'dud has been Meted* Pennant. Arent 'twenty ;years no from 110,000 to 30,000 bolls of grain wete annually sold out of it, but the quantity has diminished ; and there used to be about *110 tons of kelp prepared from the sea-weed on its -shores. But their fish form the most important article of export. Her rings, cod, lobsters, and salmon, bring in L.43,400, of which the herring fishery alone yields L. 40,000. Besides a great number of boats employed in the several creeks and harbours in fishing for haddock, hog, &c. which are consumed in the county ; about twenty smacks from Gravesend fish for cod and ling, on the north coast of Caithness, and are said to have, in a great degree, destroyed the cod-fishery on its shores.
Among the antiquities of this county, the far famed John-o-Geoat s house deserves to be noticed.
The tradition regarding this celebrated personage is, that his ancestot•came from Holland, and settled in this county in the reign of James.IV.; and- that be built this house of an octagon form, enclosing a large table of the same shape, to obviate disputes about precedency, at their anniversary meetings, among the Groats in his time, consisting of eight families. Each family, by this contrivance, enter ed separately at its own door, and was seated at the corresponding side of the table. A variety of. those • singular structures called Picts Houses, are still to be seen in Caithness. Many of the stones are of an enormous size, and must have been brought from a distance ; fragments of earthen-ware, and a few small copper coins, have been found in them ; and some singular articles made of bone fixed with nails of the same material. They .are almost always of a- conical form, and their exterior being now covered with a thick sward of fine grass, they have theof large tumuli or barrows. The as well as the size -of these Duns, as they are called by the Highlanders, is va rious. The smallest, and apparently the oldest, have only one circular wall which contracts as it rises, till, at the top, only a small hole must have remained open, or been covered with flat stones.
The largest ones have two concentric walls, two feet distant, which in some instances meet at a ca. tain height, and in others ascend parallel to the 'summit ; the space between them being entered by a door only two feet high, and occupied by a wind. iug stair from the bottom to the top of the build. ing ; and these are surrounded by a broad deep ditch, and a sort of. rampart. The walls are usual. ly nine or ten feet thick, without cement of any kind; and from their situation on high land near the sea, or on the banks of precipitous rocks, stretching in a chain from one headland to another; they are supposed to have been used either as storehouses, or as retreats for women and children when the men were at a distance engaged in war.
The county of-Caithness sends a Member to Par liament alternately with Buteshire, on the west 'of .Bcotland, an arrangement which of late has been much objected to, not only because one of thee counties must always be•without a representative, to which each, it is thought, is entitled, but also be cause there can be hardly any common interest be. tween districts so distant • from one another, sad placed in circumstances • so different. .Five of the northern boroughs, of which Wick, the only royal borough in this county, is one, join together in the election of it Member format department.
the low grounds, t ople.differ little in their dialect from the inhabitants of the south of Scot land ; but on the mountainous tract, where Caith ness borders with Sutherland, the Gaelic prevails; though many of the natives. can speak both language with nearly equal facility.
-By comparing the ,population lists taken undo the. acts 1800 and i811, at will•be seen that, even is this remote and comparatively unproductive portion of the British Empire, there has been an increase of numbers In the intermediate period, though not to considerable as in most other counties. The inha bitants of the towns bear very small proportioo to those of the country.