lately been established on a well chosen spot, with abundance of water-power. From Pittentrail through Rogart, along the Fleet and on to Lairg, are a considerable number of crofters, or, as they are called in Sutherlandshire, lotters, who appear here to be in particularly comfortable circumstances. The greater part of the hills on each side of Strathfleet are sheep-farms, but the slopes and part of the Strath not yet under the plough are highly susceptible of cultivation. Reaching the top of the Strath, near Lairg, the holdings are still larger, and have somewhat the appearance of Caithness small farms.

THE VILLAGE OF LAIRG

is pleasantly situated on the banks of Loch Shin, and, besides being one of the prettiest inland spots in Sutherlandshire, it is the centre where the mails to and from Golspie, Bonar, Lochinver, Scourie, and Tongue, are made up and despatched, and the great rendezvous for sportsmen and tourists during the summer months.* It contains a handsome new Established Church, and a Free Church, and a large and wellconducted hotel, from the windows of which there is a fine view of the lower part of Loch Shin, which stretches away to the north-west.

Loch Shin is one of the largest sheets of fresh water in Scotland, being twenty-four miles long and averaging one mile in breadth. Its scenery is of a very softened character, and it is a most convenient and excellent lake for trout-fishing.

Leaving the inn the road crosses the Shin. On the left, to the south-west, is a beautiful valley, which was said to have been gifted by one of the Earls of Sutherland to the Bishop of Caithness, in the 12th century. The road runs west through a dreary moorland, with little exception, until it reaches Rosehall (eight miles from Lairg, the property of Sir James Mathe

*Note of route from Lairg to Lax ford Bridge by Loch Shin :

son of Lewis), where there are extensive fir plantations and a good many small farms. There are a neat Free Church and manse, and a few other houses; and the comfortable appearance of the tenants marks Rosehall as one of the "sunny " spots of Sutherlandshire. The river Oykel is here joined by the Caslie, a turbulent stream, which at the bridge has quite a romantic appearance. By following it up to its source, there is a direct pass to Assynt, close under Ben More, but only fit for a very hardy pedestrian.

Proceeding from Rosehall to Oykel (7 miles), the road passes a burial-ground, near which (we were told) a bloody battle was fought, in the fifteenth century, between the M'Leods from Lewis and the Sutherlandmen of the district, when the former were routed with great slaughter. The place is called Tutumtarvach, which signifies "the plentiful fall or slaughter." A few miles further on, Sir James Matheson has built a good inn at Oykel Bridge, on the Ross-shire side of the river. There is a road to Ullapool from this (20 miles).

Passing the farm of Lubcroy, where the Conchar falls into the Oykel, we get a good view from the rising ground of the lofty conical-shaped hills of Assynt, particularly Canisp, to the north; Suil Vein (Sugar-Loaf), with its forked top, in the centre; and Coulbeg, in Ross-shire, to the south. These three insulated mountains rise abruptly from the elevated moorland in strongly defined shapes, and have a very striking appearance. A few miles past Ledmore, another road to Ullapool branches off, and we come to Ledbeg, where marble quarries were once wrought. A series of moorland lochs or lakes—Craggy, Loch-na-Helac, Boarlan, and Loch Awe-serve further to beguile the way as we cross the high ground, and descend to Assynt through a valley lined on the west side by a noble range of limestone cliffs, several hundred feet in height; and on the east by that noble range of mountains which have their culminating point at the lofty Ben More, the highest elevation in Sutherlandshire, and which, according to the trigonometrical survey, rises 3236 feet above the level of the sea. The whole mountain consists of loose blocks of white marble, with scarcely any vegetation from the middle upwards, and its spurs extend to a great distance on every side, containing numerous wild and inaccessible lakes. It is most easily ascended from Innisin

damff, and six hours should be allowed for the climb, which is difficult, owing to the looseness of the stones. The view from the top is very extensive, and particularly striking towards the west and north.

On reaching Loch Assynt, we find ourselves in the midst of lofty mountains. Quinag, a mighty mass, stretches along the northern shore, interposing between Loch Assynt and Kyle Skou, a far-indenting arm of the sea. Loch Assynt is a freshwater loch, and is ten miles in length, and very narrow. At its south-eastern extremity, which we now reach, is the commodious hotel of

INNISINDAMFF,

12 miles from Loch Inver. Besides the hotel there are the church and manse of Assynt, all situated in a very pleasant and well-sheltered spot. About three miles down the loch the north road ascends the shoulder of Quinag. The road to Loch Inver keeps by the side of Loch Assynt, passing by the shell of a large old building, called Edderachalda, and the ruins of an older and ruder stronghold, Ardvreck Castle, once the seat of the Macleods of Assynt, and worthy of note as the place where Montrose was basely betrayed by the Laird of Assynt in the year 1650. About a mile from the western end of Loch Assynt is the village of

LOCH INVER,

with a good inn, 12 miles from Innisindamff, and 52 from Bonar Bridge. It consists of a few scattered houses and cottages, and a summer residence of the Duke of Sutherland, all pleasantly situated at the head of the bay, and at the mouth of the river Inver, a fine salmon stream. It has regular communication with Glasgow by steamer, and a mail-gig leaves every Wednesday and Saturday for Golspie. An extensive trade was at one time carried on here in herring curing, but, like the other establishments along the west and north of Sutherlandshire, it has, after strenuous but hitherto abortive efforts, been abandoned, and the fishing is thus almost at a stand still. Neither is the deep-sea fishing prosecuted to any extent. Lobsters are shipped in great numbers for the southern markets.

To get a good view of Suil Vein will be a chief object with the traveller, and this may be accomplished in a walk of about a mile; but the most striking view is got from the water, where a further prospect is obtained of a prolonged succession of lofty single mountains, all quite apart from each other, resting on an elevated table-land of rugged rocky ground. Suil Vein is, however, quite distinctive-at first presenting the appearance of a glass house, and, as the distance increases sea-ward, of a perfect sugar-loaf shaped cone, shooting up at once from the table-land without any supporting base, and certainly a very remarkable looking mass. Its summit is 2396 feet above the level of the sea, according to the trigonometrical survey.

Great part of the district of Assynt and of Edderachylis is composed of a network of bare rocky eminences, having innumerable dark motionless tarns or pools, of varying dimensions, frequently margined with water plants, embedded in the deep intervening hollows.

LOCH INVER TO DURNESS (Cape Wrath), AND TONGUE.

Proceeding northwards by the sea-coast, the road winds among inequalities, frequently very steep; but there is much of picturesque novelty in the strange ruggedness of the ground. Passing Bradcall, where the parish church and manse of Edderachylis are situated, and where there is a large store for packing the salmon caught along the west coast, we reach Kyle Sku, a noble inlet, penetrating in its furthest reaches the recesses of Glen Coul and Glen Dhu, where its waters are closely hemmed in by lofty barriers of rock, which descend from the northern side of Quinag. These glens are among the most striking scenes on the coast.

Scourie is a considerable hamlet or township, with enclosed

fields, encircling the termination of a well-indented bay. The small, though comfortable inn, is on the south, and on the opposite side of the bay is the local factor's house, a large substantial structure with a good garden. Off the bay the island of Handa presents, in its magnificent range of cliffs, an object well worthy of notice. They extend along nearly the whole of the western side of the island, and rise quite perpendicularly from the sea to a height of 600 or 700 feet, tenanted by myriads of sea fowl during the breeding season. From the rock inclining landward, the precipices can be approached with some confidence. Among the rocky hills of the more inland mountains, that of Stack, which rises 2364 feet above the level of the sea, is remarkable for its high pyramidal summit.

Proceeding onwards from Scourie, the road skirts the extremities of two salt-water lochs-Laxford and Inchard. The outline of the former is very irregular, and at its head the road from Lairg by Loch Shin reaches the coast. At the end of Loch Inchard is a substantial public-house (Rhiconich), 11 miles from Scourie. Ascending the course of the Achriesgill, we now round the shoulder of a long ascent, called the Gualin, on which a small public-house has been erected for shelter to the wayfarer. Fronting us, on the further side of the valley, is the massive bulk of Ben Spenue (2535), and more to the right, the still loftier precipitous summits of Fonn Bhein (2979). Glasven (2543) is on the left. Having crossed the isthmus that terminates on the north-west at Cape Wrath, the tourist reaches the placid waters of the Kyle of Durness, and keeping in view for some time the farm-house of Keoldale, he strikes along a fertile table-land of limestone rock, which stretches towards Loch Erriboll, and at length reaches the comfortable inn of

DURNESS.

From the window may be descried, in the distance, the tremendous cliffs of Hoy Head in the Orkneys; and the eye ranges along a long line of coast, edged at intervals by lofty rocks. Close at hand, Farout Head projects into the north sea; on the west side of the promontory, which forms the eastern side of the Kyle of Durness, stand the old house of Balnakiel, a residence of the Bishops of Sutherland and