BIRD IJFE, ETC. 177 



and sheep -farmers, with guns and traps, have left 

 but a very scanty residue of a once prosperous 

 and respectable race. The same inconsiderate 

 selfishness which has cleared Van Dieman's Land 

 of its aboriginal population has destroyed our magni- 

 ficent eagles and sagacious ravens. It is indeed a 

 rare pleasure to hear the barking and yelping of that 

 distant bird which from the red crags to the right 

 calls aloud to his mate, perched behind us on that 

 rugged ridge. — Natural History of Deeside, p. 83. 



28. — Another Night Visit to the Sources of 

 THE Dee. 



In September 1819 a poor student of King's 

 College, Aberdeen, ascended to the sources of the Dee 

 on his way to Kingussie and Fort William. From 

 his journal I make the following extract : — " About 

 three or four miles above the Linn, the Dee is joined 

 by a river equal in size, namely the GeauUy, the source 

 of which I had explored in 1816, when I came across 

 the mountains from Blair Atholl. Hitherto I had 

 travelled in a westerly direction, but now proceeded 

 northward, following the river. There are no houses 

 beyond the junction mentioned. About a mile above 

 it, I came in sight of a most magnificent rock, with a 

 mountain peak behind it of greater elevation. When 

 I reached this rock, I learned by the light scarlet 

 colour of the clouds on the ridges that the sun was 



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