James Robertson was first employed by the Commissioners, at the instance of Professor Hope of the Edinburgh Chair of Botany, to make a survey of the flora of the Highlands and Islands, but he was later authorized to make notes on the fauna and on the natural features of the country. For an account of James Robertson's tour in 1768 see Sir Arthur Mitchell, "James Robertson's Tour through some of the Western Islands, etc., of Scotland in 1768", in 'Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland', volume xxxii (1898), page 11. Robertson presumably went on tour also in 1769 and 1770, since his period of employment is known to have lain between 1767 and 1771, and Professor Hope in a memorandum to the Commissioners (for which see the Forfeited Estates Papers in the Scottish Record Office) mentioned five tours, the journals of which he possessed and proposed to deposit in the library of the College of Physicians. These journals are not now in the College.