10 AUTUMNS ON THE SPEY. 



cliff, gradually lowering, retires on the left, while 

 on the right the pine-covered hills recede still 

 further from the stream ; and now the well- 

 timbered grounds of Gordon Castle open on the 

 view, rising from the intervening plain, until the 

 verdure of the deer-park, varied with heathery 

 moorland, is succeeded by glens of deciduous 

 trees and giant larches, beyond which a wide 

 forest of primaeval pines stretches for many miles 

 over the hills, and forms a dark background to 

 the picture, from which the old central tower of 

 the Castle and the spire of Fochabers Kirk stand 

 out in sharp relief. 



Still lower down, the gorse-covered wastes and 

 alder woods that flank the low shores, are regularly 

 inundated by the winter floods, which, on retiring, 

 leave numerous clear pools of water. Many of 

 these, shaded from the sun, and protected from 

 the drying winds of spring and summer, are 

 never exhausted during the rest of the year, 

 and become a favourite haunt of wild ducks 

 and other water-birds during the later autumnal 

 months. 



I should have mentioned before this that the 

 fall of the river between the bridge and the sea, a 

 distance of nearly five miles, is considerable ; and 

 as no cascade occurs in the interval, the force of 



