In the limestone rock, on the north coast, there are some remarkable caves, one of these at Smoro, to the east of Balnaheel and Durness, is 96 feet wide and 60 feet high; another at Fraisgill is 50 feet high and twenty feet wide at its mouth, gradually contracting till it terminates at the end of half a mile.
The principal streams are the Oickel or Firth of Dornoch, Fleet or Strathfleet, Broro, and Helms dale. The Oickel is navigable for 12 miles for ships of 50 tons, and about eight miles farther for boats. These streams rising in the interior fall into the Dornoch Firth; but others, such as the Strathy, the Naver, and the Dinart, the Hallidale, the Kenloch, the Hope, and the Eribol, flow towards thc north ern and western shores.
The principal lake in this county is Loch Shin, extending 20 miles from NW. to SE. and about a mile broad. It abounds with salmon and trout. Loch Assynt is six miles long and one and a half broad. The others are Loch Naver, Loch Hope, Loch Lyal, Loch More, Loch Brora, and Baden Loch, all abounding with trout.
The valued rental of the county is L.26,193 9s. 7d. which is divided among seventeen proprietors, the Marquis of Stafford having L.16,951, Lord Reay L.3720, Skibo L.1975, Bighouse L.900, and the rest between L.200 and L.500. The real rent has been estimated at L.40,000 sterling. A superiority of L.200 Scots gives a vote for the member of Par liament, when L.400 is necessary in the other Scotch counties. The number of freeholders was 22 in 1828. Dornoch, the country town, is a royal burgh, which, along with Dingwall, Tain, Wick, and Kirk wall, sends a member to Parliament. The town is
small. A part of the old cathedral, said to have been built in the 1 lth century, is kept in repair as the parish church. The ruins of the bishop's cas tle, which seems to have been a stately building, still remains. Dornoch contains only 132 houses, 140 families, 58 of whom are in trade, and 9630 in habitants.
Among the antiquities of Sutherlandshire are two circular buildings, Dun-Dornadil and Castle Coll. Dun-Dornadil, in the parish of Durness, is in a ruinous state. Only a portion of the wall is stand ing, which does not exceed 18 feet in height The area seems to have been enclosed by two concentric walls, and a large triangular stone serves as a lintel to the doorway. Castle Coll, on the east side of the county, has a circuit of 162 feet, with walls 131 feet thick at the base, inclining inwards nine inches for every three feet of altitude. On each side of the doorway are two small apartments. Both of these buildings consist of large stone nicely joined together without cement. Cairns and tumuli are very numerous. In the isle of Oldncy is a consid erable cairn with a hollowed stone, having a cover likewise of stone. The first of these stones is said to have contained a rounded one of various colours. On the east coast is a rocky precipice called Craig bar, fortified with a ditch of circumvallation.
The population of Sutherland in 1821, was as fol lows:— 1 • 1.7.,•, 1,1J,