Inverness-shire

Inverness-shire, a Highland county, the largest in Scotland, and larger than any in England but Yorkshire, stretches from sea to sea, and has a total area of 4323 sq. m., of which 1284 belong to the Outer Hebrides—Skye, Harris, North and South Uist, Benbecula, Barra, Arasaig, Eigg, St Kilda, and thirty-seven other inhabited islands. The mainland portion, measuring 85 by 55 miles, is intersected NE. and SW. by the Great Glen and the Caledonian Canal (q.v.). It includes Badenoch, Glenroy, and the valley of the Spey on the east; Lochaber on the south; Glenelg, Glengarry, Arasaig, and Moidart on the west; Strathglass on the north; Glenurquhart and Glenmoriston towards the centre. It is truly a 'land of the mountain and the flood,' for it contains Ben Nevis (4406 feet), the highest point in Britain, with twenty-six other summits exceeding 3500 feet, whilst the chief of its rivers are the Spey, Ness, and Beaulay, and of ninety good-sized lakes Lochs Ness, Archaig, Shiel, Lochy, Monar, Laggan, and Ericht. The west coast is indented by salt-water Lochs Hourn, Nevis, and Moidart. The rocks include gneiss, mica-slate, granite, porphyry, and trap; and the most fertile soil in the county rests on the red sandstone in the valley of the Aird, and between the county town and Beaulay. Only 4.6 per cent. of the whole area is in cultivation; and 255 sq. m. are under wood, the rest being sheep-walks, deer-forests, moss, and barren heath, valuable only as grouse-moors. Sheep, numbering some 700,000, are the principal live-stock; and there are five deer-forests of 50 sq. m. and upwards. The rivers and lakes afford splendid fishing, and in 1890 the total rental of the shootings, deer-forests, and fishings of Inverness-shire was £86,902. The land is mostly divided among eighty-nine proprietors, eight holding each above 100,000 acres. The county returns one member to parliament. Inverness is its only town of any size; Kingussie and Fort William, though police burghs, are mere villages, as also are Beaulay, Fort Augustus, and Portree. Pop. (1801) 72,672; (1841) 97,799; (1881) 90,454; (1891) 90,121, less than 21 inhabitants per square mile. See articles on the chief islands, lakes, &c., as well as on HIGHLANDS, HEBRIDES, CULLODEN, DEER-FORESTS, GLENROY, and FOYERS.