Although no action was taken at the time, in 1785 John Knox expounded the benefits of it relieving distress in the Highlands, and preventing ships having to navigate the dangerous Pentland Firth between the Orkney Islands and Caithness. William Fraser, when proposing his own scheme for a canal in 1793, announced that "nature had finished more than half of it already". At the time, much of the Highlands were depressed as a result of the Highland Clearances, which had deprived many of their homes and jobs. Laws had been introduced which sought to eradicate the local culture, including bans on wearing tartan, playing the bagpipes, and speaking Scottish Gaelic. Many emigrated to Canada or elsewhere, or moved to the Scottish Lowlands. The engineer Thomas Telford was asked to investigate the problem of emigration in 1801, and in 1802 published his report, which suggested that the problem was caused by landowners who had previously kept cattle creating vast sheep-farms. Realising that direct government action to tackle the issue would be seen as interference, he therefore suggested that a programme of public works, involving roads, bridges and canals, would be a way to provide jobs for people who had been displaced by the sheep farming, and to stimulate industry, fishery and agriculture.