FLOODS OF THE FINDHORN 



117 



river has not room to spread, the danger is doubly great, owing 

 to the irresistible force acquired by the pent-up water. The 

 flood, when occasioned by a summer storm, soon subsides, and 

 the next day no trace is left of it excepting the dark, coffee- 

 coloured hue of the water. Passing the lime-quarries of Copt- 

 hall, the river flows through a fertile country and under a beauti- 

 ful suspension bridge, which was built after the great floods of 

 1 829, when it was found that a bridge on no other construction 

 would be large enough to admit of the floating masses of timber 

 and the immense body of water during heavy floods. The net- 

 fishing is in active operation from this point down to the sea, 

 and the number of salmon and grilse sometimes caught is 

 astonishing. Instead of rock and cliff, the river is banked in 

 by heaps of shingle, which are constantly changing their shape 

 and size. There seems to be a constant succession of stones 

 swept down by the river : what in one season is a deep pool, 

 is, after the winter floods, a bank of shingle. An endless 

 supply seems to be washed off the mountains and rocks through 

 which the river passes, and these stones, by the time they have 

 been rolled down to the lower part of the river, are as rounded 

 and water-worn in their appearance as the shingle on the sea- 

 shore. 





BELUGAS HOUSE 



