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down from, the sides of the Grampian Mountains. 

 As the waters dash from rock to rock, the effect is 

 grand and romantic in the extreme ; and nature has 

 been greatly assisted by the artificial elegancies 

 which Lord Gordon has introduced in many locali- 

 ties in the river. 



The higher waters of the North Esk are composed 

 of the streams called the Lee, the Mark, and the 

 Brany. In its progress of fifty miles in extent, the 

 waters of the Effock, Tarf, Turret, and Keeny, are 

 poured into it. We have known very large trout 

 taken out of some of these streams by trolling ; and, 

 when the fish are in a taking mood, any thing in 

 the shape of a fly will satisfy them. All these 

 streams flow through districts that are exceeding 

 interesting and beautiful. 



One of the striking features which marks a ram- 

 ble among the rivers in this eastern section of Scot- 

 land, somewhat different from an excursion among 

 the mountain streams of the Highlands, is the pre- 

 valence of copse-wood, hedge rows, and limited 

 patches of ornamental timber. These relieve the 

 general landscape mightily; and, what is of more 

 moment, they afford places of shelter for several 

 species of birds, whose notes fall upon the ear of 

 the traveller with a ravishing sweetness. The notes 

 and cries of the feathered creation have an especial 

 adaptation to the localities they frequent. In the 

 wild and solitary glens and morasses of the High- 

 lands, how strikingly in unison with external na- 

 ture, and one's own feelings, are the shrill whistle 



