THE BIRD-LIFE OF THE SPEY VALLEY. 87 
head of Glen Roy and Corryarrick. The infant Spey leaves 
the loch as a burn of some size, soon to be considerably 
augmented by the waters of the Truim on the right, and the 
Calder, flowing from the heights of the Monadhliath Moun- 
tains, on the left. 
In its early career the Spey is an impetuous mountain 
stream, and falls 230 feet in the first nine miles of its 
course; but, after passing Laggan Bridge, it settles down 
into a steady, and even sluggish, river, expanding at 
intervals into wide reedy pools, the haunt of ducks 
and other water-fowl. After its confluence with the Truim, 
the course of the stream quickens somewhat, until it enters 
the wide alluvial plain below Kingussie, once the bed of an 
extensive lake, and now occupied by marshy meadows, still 
liable to constant floods. 
Below Loch Insh, which is the last remnant of the 
ancient lake, the Spey is largely augmented by the waters of 
the Feshie, coming down from the recesses of the Western 
Cairngorms, and in flood-time spreading far and wide over 
the broad shingle delta that marks the confluence of the two 
streams. From this point the Spey flows with a steady 
current, in alternating stream and pool, past the beautiful 
woods of Kinrara and Rothiemurchus, the birch-copses of 
Kinchurdy, and the flat meadows of Nethy Bridge, to the 
picturesque old bridge at Grantown. Here the valley 
contracts, and the fall of the stream again becomes more 
rapid, being at the average rate of 104 feet per mile from 
Grantown to the sea. 
After passing through the fertile haugh-lands of Cromdale 
and the Dale of Advie, the river enters the most picturesque 
part of its course, below the mouth of the Avon at Ballin- 
dalloch, and plunges down a steep incline in a succession of 
whirling rocky pools and swift-sliding rapids. Between 
Blacksboat and Carron it is closed in by heavy pine-woods, 
and at one spot one can well imagine that it flows from the 
heart of a mighty forest, such as that which once clothed 
the whole of the Highlands; for the trees spring from the 
very edge of the water, while nothing is to be seen but the 
fir-clad hills on either side. 
This continues, more or less, the character of the river 
