346 TRANSACTIONS OF THE [Sess. lxxix. 



modern authorities hold that this calamity was but a 

 culmination of many attacks by the sand, and that it is 

 absurd to believe that all the ground now covered was 

 formerly cultivated. Accounts are certainly extant of 

 previous sand-storms and floods, and the area must have 

 invited invasion from seaward by reason of its low eleva- 

 tion. One map shows a line, well towards the landward 

 side of the dunes, which represents a former line of coast. 

 The gravel beds found far in among the sandhills are 

 supposed to be former sea-beaches. The River Findhorn, 

 too, is stated to have flowed westward through what is 

 now a region of dunes, until it was choked by sand-storms 

 and forced into its present course through Findhorn Bay 

 on the east. 1 



Climate. 



The climate of the Culbin area, like that of the rest of 

 the seaboard of Elginshire and that also of Nairnshire, is 

 distinguished by its low rainfall. The district is said to 

 have forty days " fair weather " more than any other in 

 Scotland. A medical report on the county of Nairn, which 

 touches the area under consideration on the west, says that 

 " the average rainfall is a fraction over twenty inches 

 annually. This is owing to its geographical position, being 

 bounded by hills to the north, south, and west. The 

 average maximum temperature is 52*55, and the minimum 

 3917. . . . During March, April, and May north and east 

 winds are in some seasons troublesome, while the rest of 

 the year south and south-west winds prevail. With few 

 exceptions the winters are not severe; very little snow 

 falls, and frost does not hold long sway, while mist and 

 fog are seldom seen." Of Moray, Sir Robert Gordon of 

 Straloch, in the seventeenth century, says : " In salubrity 

 of climate Moray is not inferior to any, and in richness 

 and fertility of soil it much exceeds any of our Northern 

 provinces. The air is so temperate that when all around 

 is bound up in the rigour of winter, there are neither 

 lasting snows nor such frosts as damage fruit or trees." 



1 The historical problem is discussed throughout the contributions 

 of Bain, The River Findhorn ; Murdoch, Notes on a Visit to the 

 Culbin Sands, Morayshire ; and Ewing, Tbe Flora of the Culbin Sands. 



