WILD SPORTS OF THE HIGHLANDS 



much to the wildness of the scene. 



The blackcock and the roebuck now succeed the grouse 

 and red-deer. The former is frequently to be seen either 

 sitting on the trunk of a fallen birch-tree or feeding on the 

 juniper-berries, while the beautiful roebuck (the most per- 

 fect in its symmetry of all deer) is seen either grazing on 

 some grassy spot at the water's edge, or wading through 

 a shallow part of the river, looking round when half way 

 through as timid and coy as a bathing nymph. When dis- 

 turbed by the appearance of a passer by, he bounds iightly 

 and easily up the steep bank of the river, and after stand- 

 ing on the summit for a moment or two to make out the 

 extent of the danger, plunges into the dark solitudes of 

 the forest. 



On the left side of the river, as it proceeds towards the 

 sea, is a succession of most beautiful banks and heights, 

 fringed with the elegant fern and crowned with juniper, 

 which grows to a very great size, twisting its branches and 

 fantastic roots in the quaintest forms and shapes imagin- 

 able over the surface of the rocks. The lovely weeping- 

 birch is everywhere, and about Coulmony are groves of 

 magnificent beech and other forest-trees. On the opposite 

 side are the wooded hills and heights of Relugas, a spot 

 combining every description of beauty. The Findhorn 

 here receives the tributary waters of the Dorbock, a burn, 

 or rather river, not much inferior in size and beauty to the 

 main river. Hemmed in by the same kind of birch-grown 

 banks and precipitous rocks, every angle of the Findhorn 

 river presents a new view and new beauty, and at last one 

 cannot restrain the exclamation of " Surely there is no 



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