JULY. FLOODS IN THE FINDHORN. 257 



time the smoke of a cigar or pipe protects one ; but 

 no human skin can endure for any length of time 

 the inexpressible irritation produced by these insects. 

 This month is not, generally speaking, favourable 

 to the angler. Salmon seem in most rivers to have 

 given up moving, and the trout follow their exam- 

 ple. Indeed the rivers are at this period very sub- 

 ject to great changes, being one day bright, clear, 

 and very low ; and perhaps the next flooded over 

 bank and brae by some sudden and tremendous 

 thunder-storm in the higher grounds which renders 

 the water thick and turbid. The Findhoru is pecu- 

 liarly subject to these rapid changes, flowing as it 

 does for a great part of its course through a moun- 

 tainous, undrained, and uncultivated country, sur- 

 rounded by lofty and rugged heights, from the 

 clefts of which innumerable streams descend into the 

 valley of the Findhorn. This river, on any sudden 

 and violent storm of rain (fed as it is by so many 

 burns), rises sometimes almost instantaneously ; 

 and what a few minutes before was a bright clear 

 stream, fordable at all the shallower places, suddenly 

 becomes a turbid swollen torrent, which neither 

 man nor horse can cross. In those parts of the 

 river where the channel is narrow and confined be- 

 tween steep and overhanging rocks these sudden 

 risings take place more rapidly than in the lower 



