AUTUMNS ON THE SPEY. 



A BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF THE RIVER. 



" The river nobly foams and flows,, 

 The charm of this enchanted ground, 

 And all its thousand turns disclose 

 Some fresher beauty varying round : 

 The haughtiest breast its wish might bound 

 Through life to dwell delighted here ; 

 Nor could on earth a spot be found 

 To nature and to me so dear." 



BYRON. 



ALTHOUGH most of the scenes and incidents de- 

 scribed in the following papers have reference to 

 that portion of the Spey which includes the last 

 twelve miles of its rapid passage to the ocean, yet 

 perhaps a rough sketch of its entire career, from 

 its Highland cradle to its final disappearance in 

 the North Sea a distance of about a hundred 

 miles may not be unacceptable to the reader. 



The Spey, then, rises in a small loch, more 

 than 1200 feet above the level of the ocean, in the 



B 



