CHAPTER XXIII THE FINDHORN 



other river in the world so beautiful." At Logie the view 

 of the course of the river, and the distance seen far up the 

 glen till it is gradually lost in a succession of purple mount- 

 ains, is worth a halt of some time to enjoy. The steep 

 banks opposite Logie, clothed with every variety of wood, 

 are lovely, and give a new variety to the scene as we enter 

 on the forests of Darnaway and Altyre. The wood-pigeon 

 coos and breeds in every nook and corner of the woods, 

 and towards evening the groves seem alive with the song 

 of blackbirds and thrushes, varied now by the crow of the 

 cock pheasant, as he suns himself in all his glittering 

 beauty on the dry and sheltered banks of the river. 



Still formany miles is the river shutinby extensive woods 

 and overhung by splendid fir, larch, and other trees, while 

 the nearly perpendicular rocks are clothed with the birch 

 and the ladylike bird-cherry, the holly and bright-berried 

 mountain-ash growing out of every niche and cleft,c2T^ cling- 

 ing by their serpent-like roots to the bare face of the rock- 

 while in the dark, damp recesses of the stone grow several 

 most lovely varieties of pale-green ferns and other plants. 

 In the more sunny placesyou meet with the wild strawberry 

 and purple foxglove, the latter shootingup in graceful pyr- 

 amids of flower. Between Logie and Sluie are some of the 

 highest rocks on the river, and from several hundred feet 

 aboveityou can look straight down into the deep pools and 

 foaming eddies below you. At a particular gorge, where the 

 river rushes through a passage of very few feet in width, 

 you will invariably see an old salmon-fisher perched on a 

 point of rock, withhis eye intent on the rushing cataract be- 

 low him.andarmed with a staff of some sixteen feet in length 



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