But by the spirited and liberal exertions of the present landlords, cultivation has now assumed a very different aspect. Many of the waste lands have been brought under crop ; and the miserable fences of turf which se parated the waste front the arable lands, have given place to substantial stone dykes, with which some of the farms are now completely enclosed. Considerable improve ments have also been made in tl e pasture farms by the substitution of sheep instead of small Highland cattle, which has greatly increased the value of proper ty to Uri part of the country.
great exertions have been made here for improviin: the roads, an object of essential importance to the sin eess of agriculture ; and a liberal aid has be( n obtain) rl from gOVirliniCnt, on Condition that the proprietors shall expend money to a proportional amount for this benefi cial purpose. Though this county is Ni ry dr stitute of wood, it is probable that it %vas not alwa)s so, as consi• the rabic quantities of large fir and other trees have been been found in the morasses, and even in sonic places not far from the sea coast. The attempts, however, which have lately been made for raising plantations, hat e in general failed, and a few woods of birch is all that now remains, except in the Highland district, when there are some considerable forests. Those of Morra vins and lierrydale, afford abundance of red deer and roebucks. Hares, rabbits, grouse, heathcocks, par tridges, snipes, plover, and all kinds of game, are in great plenty throughout the county ; also swans, wild geese, sea-ducks, wood-cocks, and birds called snow fleets, about the size of a sparrow, exceedingly fat and delicious, which are very numerous in winter, but always take their departure in April. Prodigious quantities of scarfs, marrots, fraiks, and other sea fowl, hatch in the rocks of Duncan's Bay and Stroma, whose eggs and young, during. the season, supply many of the inhabitants with food. The rivers and lakes abound with trout, salmon, and eels ; and Air Pennant informs us, that at Thurso, 2500 salmon were once taken at one title. Great numbers of seals are killed on this coast in the caverns that open into the sea. These caverns are narrow at the mouth, but in the inside lofty and spacious, and run some hundred yards under ground. The seal hunters enter them in small boats, and lighting torches as soon as they land, with loud shouts alarm the animals, which they kill with clubs as they attempt to pass. This, how ever, is rather a hazardous employment ; for should the wind blow hard from the sea. these adventurers are in evitably lost.
The black cattle, which were formerly sent from Caithness to the south, amounted in some years to nearly 20,000 ; but this number has oflate been very considera bly diminished by the introduction of sheep farming into the upper districts of the county. The swine, which are reared here in great numbers, arc of a small breed, have long erect ears, and most savage tusks ; and though the native Highlanders abhor the flesh of this animal, yet they have always abounded in the lower part of the county. The chief manufactures of Caithness are linen,
yarn and leather. A considerable herring fishery was formerly carried on in the summer months, in which it is calculated that from six to fourteen thousand barrels were annually taken ; and it might have become an im portant branch of industry and commerce, had not the detention of the bounties in 1792 given it a fatal and ruined some of the adventurers.
Small veins of iron and leach ores have beet) discovered in this county, but not in such circumstances as to induce the proprietors to work them. Considerable quantities of white mundick, and a Slender vein of yellow mundick ; also a regular vein of heavy spar, mixed with lead and crystals, three feet in breadth, have been found near Tnurso. A copper mine wdS orce begun to be wrought near the old castle of Wick, but was soon afterwards dropped. There are plenty of whinstone, and free-stone ; likewise limestone and marl. Various at tempts have been made for the discovery of coal, but though these have been conducted by persons well skill ed in the business, and long persevered in, they have hitherto proved unsuccessful. A mineral, resembling this substance, has indeed been found near the surface, which seems to be an earthy substance, impregnated with volatile inflammable matter. It emits a hot vivid flame when but without much dissolution of parts, or diminution of size, alter it becomes extinct.
Among the antiquities of this county are to be found a variety of singular structures, called Picts houses. They are generally of a circular form, rising into the shape of a cone, with its top somewhat blunted, and the walls of the larger kind arc nine or ten feet in thickness, and surrounded by a broad deep ditch, and a sort of ram part. These buildings are usually placed on the brinks of precipitous rucks, and in the skirts of sandy bays ; and often stretch from one headland to another, evidently so arranged as to communicate with each other. Besides these are John o' Groat's house, whose traditional his tory is so wed known ; and the castles of Achaistal, Bcr rydale, Braal, Dirlet, and Lochmore.
The language spoken by the people of Caithness has always been the same as that of the south of Scotland, except among the hills on the borders of Sutherland, where the Gaelic is used. The names of many of their places are evidently Norwegian, as Ulbster, Stempster, Bindster, Scrabster, Bilbster, and several others ; the terminating syllable ster, signifying in that language an estate.
Caithness sends a member to parliament alternately with the shire of Bute. Its population in 1794 was 24,802 ; and in 1801, 22,609 ; of whom 10,183 were males, and 12,426 females. See Pennant's Tour in Scotland ; Beau ties of Scotland, vol. iv. and v.; Sir John Sinclair's Ge neral View of the Agriculture of the Northern Counties and Islands of Scotland. (a)