METEORIC RIVERS OR WATERFALLS. 419 



were more or less connected with the mountains in question. 

 That part of the Spey which is above the line I have marked, 

 was hardly swollen at all ; while at Kingussie, it and its 

 tributaries were elevated to an unexampled height ; and the 

 Deveran, the Don, the Dee and the two Esks, were each of 

 them operated upon in a similar ratio. 



Page 5. But the question as to the quantity of rain is 

 settled by the accurate observations of Mr. Murdoch, gar- 

 dener to his Grace the Duke of Gordon, at Huntly Lodge, 

 who informs me that 3| inches of rain fell between five 

 o'clock of the morning of the 3d and five o'clock of the 

 morning of the 4th of August : that is to say, that taking 

 the average of the years from 1821 to 1828, inclusive, about 

 one sixth part of our annual allowance of rain fell within 

 these twenty-four hours ; and if such was the fall at so 

 great a distance from the mountains, the deluge that de- 

 scended on them must have been so enormous as to lead us 

 rather to wonder that a flood, even yet more tremendous in 

 its magnitude and consequences, did not result from it. 



Page 178. The river Spey holds the third place among 

 Scottish rivers. It rises about sixteen miles south from 

 Fort Augustus, has a run of about ninety-six miles, and 

 drains not less than 1300 square miles of country. 



The Spey and its tributaries above Kingussie were but 

 little affected by the flood of the 3d and 4th of August. 



Page 43. The spouts of rain on the 3d and 4th con- 

 verted every dry scar on the mountain faces into a torrent, 

 which soon cut it into a ravine and covered an acre or two 

 of the slope below with huge stones and heaps of gravel, to 

 the depth of many feet. In two places, where the hill side 

 was formerly quite entire, it was torn open, and fragments 

 of detached rock, eight or ten tons in weight, were thus dis- 

 lodged and thrown down. The rock and hills were every 

 where sheeted with cataracts, whilst these huge masses 

 were tumbling headlong from their beds with a thunder 

 even louder than that of the river. 



