About the end of the eighteenth century a Mr. Gilchrist employed on his farm in Sutherlandshire as many as ten “garrons” to carry peats from the hills and seaweed from the shore. These burdens were carried in crates or panniers: “The little creatures do wonders; they set out at peep of day and never halt till the work of the day be finished—going 48 miles.”[8] [8] _Husbandry in Scotland_, published by Creech, Edinburgh, 1784. At the present time the most conspicuous field of utility open to the Scottish pony is that offered by the grouse-moors and deer-forests, though in the close season general farm and draught work affords them employment. A pony of from 13 to 14 hands may be strong enough for a man of average weight to ride on the grouse-moor; but for deer-stalking a sturdy cob of from 14 to 15 hands is necessary, a smaller animal is not equal to the task of carrying a heavy man or a 17-stone stag over the rough hills and valleys among which his work lies. The origin of the “Sheltie,” like that of the other breeds considered in the foregoing pages, is unknown. Mr. James Goudie, whose essay on _The Early History of the Shetland Pony_ is published in the first volume of the _Shetland Pony Stud Book_ thinks there is every likelihood that it was brought to the islands from Scotland at some very early period. The “Bressay Stone,” a sculptured slab which was discovered in Bressay in 1864, bears, among other designs in low relief, the figure of a horse on which a human figure is seated. “As this monument is admitted by authorities on the subject to belong to a period before the Celtic Christianity of the islands disappeared under the shock of Norwegian invasion [A.D. 872], it may be inferred ... that the animal was known and probably found in the islands at this period.” Early writers state that the Scandinavian invaders introduced the foundation stock some time prior to the fifteenth century. Buchanan makes passing reference to the Orkney and Shetland ponies in his _History of Scotland_, written three centuries ago: but the first description which has completeness to recommend it is that of Brand, who visited the islands in 1700 and wrote _A Brief Description of Orkney, Zetland, Pightland, Firth and Caithness_, which was published at Edinburgh in the following year. This author writes:—