INTRODUCTION. 



glorious Findhorn, the very perfection of a Highland river, here 

 passes through one of the most fertile plains in Scotland, or indeed 

 in the world ; and though a few miles higher up it rages through 

 the wildest and most rugged rocks, and through the romantic and 

 shaded glens of the forests of Darnaway and Altyre, the stream, 

 as if exhausted, empties itself peaceably and quietly into the Bay 

 of Findhorn, a salt-water loch of some four or five miles in 

 length, entirely shut out, by different points of land from the 

 storms which are so frequent in the Moray Firth, of which it 

 forms a kind of creek. At low-water this bay becomes an ex- 

 tent of wet sand, with the river Findhorn and one or two 

 smaller streams winding through it, till they meet in the deeper 

 part of the basin near the town of Findhorn, where there is 

 always a considerable depth of water, and a harbour for shipping. 



From its sheltered situation and the quantity of food left on 

 the sands at low-water, the Bay of Findhorn is always a great 

 resort of wild-fowl of all kinds, from the swan to the teal, and 

 also of innumerable waders of every species ; while occasionally 

 a seal ventures into the mouth of the river in pursuit of salmon. 

 The bay is separated from the main water of the Firth by that 

 most extraordinary and peculiar range of country called the 

 Sandhills of Moray, a long, low range of hills formed of the 

 purest sand, with scarcely any herbage, excepting here and there 

 patches of bent or broom, which are inhabited by hares, rabbits, 

 and foxes. At the extreme point of this range is a farm of 

 forty or fifty acres of arable land, where the tenant endeavours 

 to grow a scanty crop of grain and turnips, in spite of the rabbits 

 and the drifting sands. From the inland side of the bay stretch 

 the fertile plains of Moray, extending from the Findhorn to near 

 Elgin in a continuous flat of the richest soil, and comprising 

 districts of the very best partridge-shooting that can be found in 

 Scotland, while the streams and swamps that intersect it afford a 

 constant supply of wild-fowl. As we advance inland we are 

 sheltered by the wide-extending jvoods of Altyre, abounding 

 with roe and game, and beyond these woods again is a very ex- 

 tensive range of a most excellent grouse-shooting country, 

 reaching for many miles over a succession of moderately sized 

 hills which reach as far as the Spey. 



On the west of the Findhorn is a country beautifully dotted 



