Caitfh'ness, a county in the extreme NE. of the Scottish mainland, 43 miles long, 28 miles in extreme width, and 701 sq. m. in area. Except in the west and south, where the mountam-range dividing Caithness from Sutherland attains in Morven a height of 2313 feet, its general aspect is level and bare, being in great part moorland and treeless. The northern sea-coast is bold and rocky, with Dunnet Head and Duncansby Head, on the west side of which is John o' Groat's House (q.v.). The climate is damp and chilly; auroras are seen almost nightly in winter. Only 23 per cent. of the entire area is in cultivation; and the crops are 20 days later in ripening than in the Lothians. There are herring, ling, cod, salmon, and lobster fisheries; Wick being a chief seat of the herring-fishery. The other exports are cattle, oats, wool, and flagstones, of which, as well as of freestone and slate, Caithness contains quarries, the chief that of Castlehills, 5 miles E. of Thurso. The county returns one member; and Wick is its only parliamentary burgh; another town is Thurso. A railway (1874) connects them with the south. Pop. (1801) 22,609; (1861) 41,111; (1901) 33,860. See works by Laing (1866) and Calder (new ed. 1887).