480 PRACTICAL ORNITHOLOGY. 



and arbutus, grim rocks and pebbly streams, being all past, 

 we find ourselves driving over the Carse of Gowrie, having 

 the Sidlaw Hills on one side, and the estuary of the Tay on 

 the other. It freezes so hard that the exhalations from our 

 blood are formed into beautiful crystalline shoots of ice on 

 the windows. In one corner, cased and muffled to the mouth, 

 with woful face and closed eyes sits a thin-ribbed and slight- 

 limbed traveller, while beside him, occupying more than an 

 equitable breadth of the coach, is a portly dame, whose florid 

 cheeks bid defiance to the cold. Anon, the clattering of hoofs, 

 and the clang of the horn, announce our arrival in Dundee, 

 where, after due refreshment, we proceed to the harbour, and 

 got on board the " Modern Athens," which is to carry us to 

 Newhaven. 



The tide is nearly out. In the estuary we observe the same 

 mud and sand flats, as in the Cromarty and Beauly Friths ; 

 and on the rocks and stones the same sea-weeds and shells ; 

 the piers are covered with them up to high-water mark. Gulls 

 of various kinds are hovering around. Guillemots and Divers 

 flying seaward ; Curlews and Redshanks pacing the mud. 

 The paddles are in motion, and as we pass Broughty Castle 

 and Parton-Craig, we observe that the promontories and low 

 rocks are of trap. The channel widens, and on its sandy shores 

 gleam flocks of Sanderlings and other small birds, with Gulls 

 and Curlews. Terrific breakers rush over the long-extended 

 sand-banks, on one of which lies a dismasted hulk, and long 

 billows roll in from the ocean, on which are seen at intervals 

 Ducks, Divers, and Guillemots. At length we cross the bar, 

 stretch over the bay of St. Andrews, having the Bell Rock 

 light-house on the eastern horizon, coast the point of Fife, pass 

 the Isle of May, and enter the Frith of Forth. On the southern 

 side are the Lammermoor Hills, covered with snow, the Bass 

 Rock, Guillon Point, and Aberlady Bay ; on the north the 

 rocky and sandy shores of Fife, with its numerous small towns ; 

 while right ahead is Inchkeith, beyond which old Arthur's 

 Seat keeps his solitary watch over the fair city of the north, 

 where bright eyes will become brighter when the wanderer 

 enters his happy home. Between Inchkeith and Newhaven 



