A FRIEND IN NEED. 



" He flies aloft and flounces round the pool, 

 Indignant of the guile. With yielding hand 

 That feels him still, yet to his furious course 

 Gives way, you, now retiring, following now 

 Across the stream, exhaust his idle rage." 



THOMSON'S Seasons. 



ABOUT a week had elapsed since my last visit 

 to the lower part of the river, when a sudden fall 

 in the barometer promised a change for the better. 

 This expectation was encouraged by the fact that 

 the wind had veered round to the north, the wet 

 point in this part of Scotland, where the German 

 Ocean performs the same duty as the Atlantic in 

 the western and south-western portions of the 

 island. Our hopes of a spate, however, were dis- 

 appointed. The rain, it is true, fell over the Moray 

 Firth and the adjacent districts, but seemed to 

 have exhausted its treasures before reaching the 

 Highlands to the south, where the lesser tributaries 

 of the Spey, of late nearly dried up, derive their 

 sources, and materially affect the state of the water. 



