I 



JULY. FLOODS IN THE FINDHORN. 259 



and uprooting every bush which opposed it. Seve- 

 ral of the trees must have come some miles down the 

 river, being large Scotch firs, with their branches, 

 stem, and roots, the latter frequently still carrying 

 in their twisted fibres great masses of the rocks on 

 which they had grown. The water was coming 

 down like a wall of several feet high, sweeping 

 everything before it ; and in far less time than I 

 have taken to describe it, we were surrounded on 

 all sides with its muddy torrent. Independently of 

 the risk of being crushed to death by the floating 

 and rolling trees, its rapidity was so great that the 

 strongest swimmer could not have crossed it. 



On came the flood, narrowing our little island 

 every instant, by undermining and washing away 

 the bank on which the cottage stood. Nevertheless 

 I anticipated no more inconvenience than perhaps 

 having to pass the night where we were : for the 

 building had stood all the torrents of the Findhorn 

 since the great flood of 1829, although its inhabit- 

 ants had more than once been cut off from any 

 communication with the main land for several days 

 together. But the water was already higher than it 

 had ever been since that flood, and the women of 

 the house were weeping in despair, their terrors 

 being augmented by a prophecy which had lately 

 been uttered by an old hag in the neighbourhood, to 



