Mr Taylor on some Examples of Torrent Action. 47 



that a stone hurled from the top speedily finds its way into 

 the Lornty, which flows here in great force. The winter 

 snows may thus press the soil into the rapid flowing waters, 

 and this ultimately goes to form the haughs at its junction 

 with the Ericht, near Mr Grimond's flax mill. 



The name Ericht, the Gaelic for rough or rapid, sufficiently 

 suggests torrent action. The tourist ascending from Blair- 

 gowrie to Glenshee follows its course in an almost south-east 

 direction across a series of high table lands to its source in a 

 Grampian summit. The normal contour line of that great 

 stretch of moors through which, too, the Isla and Alyth run 

 in a parallel direction, is 1000 feet. This may have been due 

 to a receding glacier ; but the banks of the Ericht show earth 

 sculpturing long after the icy sheet was confined to the 

 higher ranges of the Grampians, probably at a much loftier 

 elevation than now. To this may have been superadded 

 torrents from melting snows on the higher mountain peaks 

 in summer. The Ericht proper begins near the Bridge of 

 Gaily, above which the Ardle and Blackwater join ; but this 

 last main stream has had a previous course of nearly twenty 

 miles, beginning at Cairnbeg. The traveller by coach road 

 to Braemar, after passing through Eattray, and gaining the 

 summit of the waterfall above Craigmill, finds the route to 

 Invercauld Arms to run along the top of a wide valley in 

 which the Ericht runs more than 300 feet below. The bold 

 escarpment of conglomerate on which stands Craighall House, 

 the Tully Veolan of Sir Walter Scott, shows the last remnants 

 of a washed-out conglomerate from the road level. The numer- 

 ous cross feeders having their source on the flat moorlands on 

 either side are also powerful denuders, except when protected 

 by skilful arboriculture, as in Mr Alexander Grimond's 

 lovely paradise of Glen Ericht. Along the upper course of 

 the Ericht are scenes very like those depicted in Le Due, 

 illustrative of the sculpturing work of Alpine torrents, espe- 

 cially near the Mains of Drimmie, and at the junction of 

 the slate and conglomerate, near Invercauld Arms Inn. The 

 contouring of the valley downwards has an interesting con- 

 nection in this point of view. In the valley of the Ericht 

 the lines fall rapidly from 1000 to 500 feet; its total breadth 



