The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1875-05-08
THE PACIFIC
SATURDAY. MAY 8,
IRON Chamhers's Jourlall
DUKE OF sUTHERLAND'S IMPROVE
MENTS.

he acquired possession Of the property, the county
Of Sutherland has been well-nigh reyOlutionised,
and a great many works are in progress which
may havea most important effect upon the future
well-being Of the people. We may enumerate
some Of the works in which the Duke bias in late
years engaged Railways in the Highlands at a
cost Of upwards Of three hundred thousand
pounds. Opening lime-quarries, and building
lime-kilns at Lairg and Erribol. Placing a steam
barge on Loeb Shin for gOOds-trafhc. ReOPening
and working cOal-mines at BrOra. Erecting d
large brick-wOrk and mandatory Of tiles, drain
ing-pipes, hre-bTicks, &c. Reclamation OF land
on q very large scale at various places, especially
at Lairg, by means of steam-plOughs Of novel
construction and remarkable power. Introducing
Oad-locOmotive and portable thrashIng-machiues.
/ Providing steam-plOughs for hire. Laying oyster
beds. Breeding salmon on a large scale, and
trying the effect of introducing the breed Of such
rivers as the Tweed, the Tay, and the Thurso,
into the small rivers Of Sutherland. Gas-makiDg
from peat and testing the value of peat as fuel
for domestic purposes, for engines, lime-burning,
&c. Experiments for improving the quality and
durability Of homegrown timber. Trying the
effects Of pure-water irrigation on lawn and
mountain grasses. Extensive planting. Division
Of s~hootings and building lodges, with a view to
increasing the number Of resident shooting ten
ants. Erection Of saw-mills and steam-carpentry
works capable Of turning out every kind of wood
work necessary for building houses, &c. Work
shops for repairing steam-ploughs and machinery
Of every kind.
All this, it must be remembered, is irrespective
of the ordinary management of an immense ter
ritory, the organisation of a body of Volunteers,
which embraces the whole strength of the county
and the maintenance of a splendid hospitality,
not confined 10 the Dukes palatial residence at
DunrObIn, but carried on at Stafford House,
Trentham. and Lilleshall, where industrial works
Of scarcely less magnitude than those in Suther-
land, have His Grace's constant attention and
supervision. That supervision is not a fiction
1 earlv and late His Grace IL on tha move {. as other
people order their carriage round at a certain
hour, the Duke bespeaks his private engine at
the Dunrobin station, and he likes to drive it
himself.
improvements Of Sutherland are not all of re-
cent date. Much had already been done by the
late Duke and his predecessor. Roads were made;
farms adjusted and let on lease good dwelling
houses and farm-steadings had been erected where
required the old castle of Dunrobin, the family
seat for many centuries, had been converted into
q palace worthy of royalty; and the county was
in a settled, prosperous, and easy-going condi-
ton, but cut off from the world, inasmuch as it
lacked railway communication. This desideratum
has now been supplied. A line of the ordinary
four feet eight and a half inch gauge penetrates
the county, and communicates with the two prln-
cipal towns of Caithness, SO that carriages can
be sent literally from the Pentland Firth to the
British Channel without interruption. The con-
~struction Of part Of the line-Golspie to Helms
dale-was undertaken in a great measure for the
| relieI OF the people OF DulueTitnu, WHO udu u
two or three bad fishing seasons, and were in dis
tress. Without waiting for an act of parliament.
or calling for contracts, the Duke broke ground
at Golspie for a continuation Of the Highland
Railway, and at once offered employment to the
people Of the district. He was his own contrac-
tor, bought his own ballast-trucks, the timber
for the sleepers came from his own estate, was
sawn at his own saw-mills, and the stone for the
bridges came from bis W quarries. The men
was done, and seventeen miles of railway con-
structed on this principle, the Duke had the sat
~islaction of knowing that he had not only helped
the people at a pinch, but had made the very
cheapest railway that has yet been opened in the
kingdom. To complete the notice of this pecu-
liar piece of work, the government inspector said
it was as good a railway as could be constructed
and when the Duke opened it for traffic, he drove
the engine himself, and on the foCt-piate with
him were the Prince and Princess Christian, and
the Duchess of Sutherland.
As far as Helmsdale, the construction of the
line was easy. Between the mountains and the
sea lies a belt Of fiat land, for the most part of
sharp good soil, that bears fine crops Of barley
and potatoes, and yields as excellent early grass
as any in the north. This is the only part of the
county in which there is any population to speak
of, and the railway thereafter passes through a
tract OF land such as it is hard to associate with
the idea Of travelling in the Highlands of Scot
land. There are miles and miles Of the most
dreary moorland, as fat as she palm of the hand
not a tree or II bush is to be seen, not even the
fragrant bOgmyrtle but there are multitudes of
shallow lakes, which hold splendid trout and give
good angling. Peaty water and good fish seem
incompatible, hut may be reconciled by the fact,
that where the railway here and there cuts deeper
than the growth Of peat, the soil on which it
rests appears to be of a marty clay, and where
there is plenty Of mari in water, the fish gener-
ally are pink-like salmon. The termini at Wick
and Thurso are both places of interest in their
way-the former, the great centre of the herring
fishing; and the latter, a well-built, genteel,
county capital, at the mouth Of one OF the finest
salmon rivers in the world, and within easy
reach of firm yellow sands by the s%eashore, such
as are in themselves an i~nducement TO sea-bath-
ing. In the Highland Railway, the Duke holds
LOO, 900 of stock; the line from Bonar bridge
to Golspie cost him Lie, 900 from GolspIe to
Helmsdale, LOO 900 and his contribution to
the Sutherland and Caithness railway was Loo
600 in all, L.3O1 900. The Highland railway
system now extends to 40 miles.
If peat is ever to be converted into an article
of commercial value, the vast deposits around
Forsinard-One Of the stations on the Sutherland
and Caithness line-shOuld count for much. Not
only is the extent enormous, but the quality is
goOd-for peat, it seems, differs almost as much
as soil in It's capacity for growth, and Its useful
ness as fuel. Ii grows like a sponge in some
places, 80 j loose, wet, and porous as to be almost
worthless at FOrsinard, and generally on the
confines Of Caithucss and Sutherland, it is of
close, firm texture, very black in color, and taking
a long time TO grow. Many expensive expert
ments have been made 10 utilise this abundant
growth, but there has always been some hitch.
Sir James Matheson made splendid paraflne can
dies from 1t. but it was no sooner at the paying
point than some invention was made by which
the LEWIS candles were uDdersOld in the market;
q large mandatory has sprung up at Arisaig, in
the West Highlands, but Its success has yet to be
tried. The Duke Of Sutherland has experimental
upon peat in z hundred ways; he tried to work
it up with saw-dust and coal-tar into fuel for en-
gines, mixed it with coai-dust. the debris of the
c~ollieries, and compressed the compound into the
shape of bricks. lie took common peats from
the moor, and, by an ingenious process, forced
boiling pitch into every pore Of the mould, so
that If must burn. And so it did. All the ex-
periments snited very well, they were quite sue
cessful; but they could not supersede materials