V.—The Early Colonization of North-eastern Scotland. (Address.)

The Old Red Sandstone plane of Caithness, with the geologically associated Orkneys, forms a homogeneous region comparatively isolated from the rest of Scotland by its geographical position and structure and by climatic conditions. Neither the physical geography nor the geology of the region need description here, except to note the absence of metals or similar mineral resources and the influence a stone that breaks easily and naturally along its bedding planes into flat slabs must exercise upon the local architecture. A word must, however, be said about the climate, which has not remained constant in prehistoric times.