68 FIELD-NOTES FOR THE YEAR. CH. XXIV. 



house, where I rebound the cut, and having directed 

 the man where to find the roe, and to tell the other 

 shooters that I had left the woods, I made my way 

 homewards as well as I could, and, luckily meet- 

 ing on the road one of my servants exercising a 

 pony, I got home without more inconvenience, but 

 I had to pass many a long day upon a sofa. Had 

 a similar accident happened on some of the wild and 

 distant mountains of the country where I often 

 shoot, I should probably not have been seen again, 

 till the ravens and the storms of winter had left 

 nothing but my bones. From such slight and 

 trivial causes do accidents sometimes happen to 

 remind us how helpless we all are. 



In the low parts of Morayshire the snow seldom 

 lies long, and consequently after every lengthened 

 snow-storm there is a constant migration not only 

 of wild-fowl of all kinds, but also of partridges and 

 other game, who come down to the bay and shore 

 from the higher parts of the district, where the 

 ground is more completely covered with snow, the 

 depth of which increases gradually as one recedes 

 from the shore. 



A more strikingly varied drive of twenty miles 

 can scarcely be taken than from the Spey at Gran- 

 town down to Forres on the sea-side near the 

 mouth of the Findhorn river. After emerging 



