NORTHERN MEMOIRS. 203 



by reason it's surrounded with boggy morasses ; 

 standing in swamps, on an isthmus of land, that 

 divides the Ness from the Orchean Seas. 



Yet here is one thing more among our nor- 

 thern novelties very remarkable ; for here you 

 shall meet with a wooden bridg to convoy you 

 over the rapid Ness ; but certainly the weakest, 

 in my opinion, that ever stradled over so strong 

 a stream. However, it serves to accommodate 

 the native, to those pleasant and fragrant mea- 

 dows, north and north-west, that direct to the 

 demolishments of the Castle of Lovet, near to 

 which stand the antiquities of Brawn, planted 

 upon the brow of a considerable bank, that 

 hangs, one would think, o're a spacious river, 

 above all in Scotland, replenished with salmon : 

 whose numbers are numberless, if not improper 

 to say so ; and careless of their lives, they cast 

 them away. 



I must confess, the strength of such strange 

 reports, oftentimes meets with a foreign faith, 

 that raises more scruples than arguments can 

 answer. And so it hapned to me at first, till 

 convinced by some persons of considerable re- 

 putation, that when the fisher-men with their 

 sanes have drawn these streams, they have count- 

 ed many times five hundred at a draught ; the 

 truth of which relation, should any man doubt 

 of, they are ready to assert and vindicate the 



