The western Highland coast is intersected throughout by long narrow sea-lochs or fiords. The mainland slopes steeply into the sea and is fronted by chains and groups of islands. These fiords are submerged land-valleys, for the whole western coast has subsided to a considerable depth beneath its former level. The Scottish sea lochs must be considered in connection with those of western Ireland and Norway. The whole of this north-western coast-line of Europe bears witness to recent submergence. On this view the Outer and Inner Hebrides were formerly one with them selves and the mainland, and the western isles therefore are truly grouped with the Highland province of Scotland. Nearly the whole coast-line is rocky. On the west the coast is mostly either steep rocky declivity or a sea-wall, though strips of lower ground are found in the bays. The cliffs vary in character according to the nature of the rock. At Cape Wrath, precipices 3ooft. high have been cut out of the Archean gneiss. The varying texture of this rock, its irregular foliation and jointing, and its ramifying veins of pegmatite give it very unequal powers of resistance. Here it projects in irregular bastions and buttresses, there retires into deep recesses and tunnels, but shows everywhere a characteristic rugged ness. In striking contrast to these precipices are those of the Cambrian red sandstone a few miles to the east. Vast vertical walls of rock rise to a height of 600ft., cut by their perpendicular joints into quadrangular piers and projections, some of which stand out alone as islets in front of the main cliff. The sombre colouring is relieved by vegetation along the edges of the nearly flat beds which project like great cornices and serve as nesting places for sea-fowl. Along the western sea-lochs raised sea beaches sometimes afford the only arable soil, their flat green surfaces presenting a strong contrast to the brown moors above. The population of the Highlands is naturally scattered, since great tracts of mountain and moorland are uninhabitable. The few small towns and larger villages are for the most part such as have grown in modern times as touring centres and places of summer residence along the west coast and the railways, in particular the line between Perth and Inverness. Settlements remote from these influences are commonly small, and some on the western seaboard share with Norwegian fjord-side settlements the characteristic of having their chief lines of access by water. The Highlands are not rich in minerals; only a few workings, such as that of the iron ore of Raasay, near Skye, are encountered ; and only the modern development of hydro-electric power gives promise of any considerable industrial activity. This use of the water-power resources of the west, however, has already resulted in the establishment of aluminium works at Foyers and at Kinlochleven—the power itself being the sole attraction, for neither raw material, nor an easy line of commercial communica tion, nor even a potential industrial population, were available at these places. Further schemes are developing in Lochaber and the district near Mallaig. Otherwise, homestead industry, such as the manufacture of Harris tweed in the outer Hebrides, can maintain itself (apart from local consumption) only by the special excellence of its products. It thus follows that the High land population is principally agricultural, and concentrated upon the limited cultivable areas, the resources of which it tends easily to outgrow, so that the Highlands have sent and still send abroad many emigrants. Only a few alluvial basins—up to an elevation of i,2ooft. in Banffshire, but usually much lower—the levels of raised beaches, and narrow isolated coastal strips offer fair agricultural land, and a more or less complete subsistence to the crofters, of whom those on the coast lands may add to their means of livelihood by fishing, while others may take service as gamekeepers on the large sporting estates which occupy a high proportion of the total area.
part of the region (east and south-east of Moray firth) the principal rivers—Spey and Dee, and, within the angle formed by these, the Don, Ythan, Deveron, and others—drain long valleys separated by extended spurs of the Highland mountains. The hills sink to a fairly wide foreland, here sloping gently to the sea, there broken off in low cliffs. On this part of the coast there are neither islands nor deep inlets, though plenty of small bays offer shelter for shipping, especially fishing vessels. Northward, the coast is deeply indented by the Firths of Moray, Cromarty and Dornoch, and a further series of fine rivers, hardly less famous among salmon and trout fishermen than those just mentioned, enter the sea from the mountains to the west. The chief of these rivers are the Findhorn, Beauly, Conon, Shin, and Helmsdale. The peninsulas between the firths reach no great elevation—an extreme height of Sooft. is found in the Black Isle south of Cromarty firth. The coastal Lowland of Sutherland, as already indicated, is very narrow, but Caithness is a wide moor, terminating almost everywhere seaward in a range of precipices of Old Red sandstone.
The population of this region is, on the whole, closer on the coastal lands than in the interior; the largest towns, such as Aberdeen, Peterhead, Fraserburgh, Banff, Inverness, Wick, are seaports. In Sutherland population is almost confined to the raised beaches of the narrow coastal belt. On the other hand a fairly dense rural population covers most of the area between the lower Dee and fhe Deveron, and extends far up the valley of the Spey. The region is not devoid of very fertile lands, although their preparation for tilling has, in the past, necessitated in some parts immense labour in clearing the glacial boulders with which they were bestrewn. A high standard of farming is reached in the lower parts of the Dee and Don basins, the Laigh of Moray, and other localities. Oats and turnips, with some barley, are main crops, and the lower lands of the eastern division are famous for cattle. On the higher grounds sheep are more prominent. Granite is quarried at several points in the same division, and granite-polishing is a characteristic industry at Aberdeen. Pure water, favourable for malting, has helped in the establishment of the distilling industry. The fisheries centre mainly on Aberdeen, which is also the principal port for the export of herrings; the pelagic fisheries are carried on mostly from more northerly ports—Peterhead, Fraserburgh and Wick (as well as the Orkney and Shetland Islands).