cHAP. vul.] Coast-line of Banffshire. 135 
miles. But he very often exceeded these limits, as we shall 
afterward find. ‘ 
Having referred to the coast-line, we may also briefly re- 
fer to the inland portion of the county. Banffshire is of 
an irregular shape, and extends from the southern shores of 
the Moray Firth in a south-westerly direction toward Cairn- 
gorm and Ben Macdhui—the highest mountain knot of the 
Grampians. The middle portion of the county is moder- 
ately hilly. Glen Fiddick, Glen Isla, and Strath Deveron 
follow the line of hills which descend in a north-westerly 
direction from the Grampians toward the sea. - 
The county generally is under cultivation of the highest 
order. The valleys are intersected with rich meadows and 
pasture-lands, which are stocked with cattle of the choicest 
breeds. There are numerous woods and plantations, both 
luxuriant and verdant, though there is a great want of 
hedges. Agriculture is gradually extending upward toward 
the mountains. Moors and morasses are fast disappearing. 
In places where the wail of the plover, the birr of the moor- 
cock, and the scream of the merlin were the only sounds, 
the mellow voice of the lark, the mavis, and the blackbird 
are now to be heard in the fields and the woods throughout 
the country. 
Tn the extreme south-western district lies the great mount- 
ain knot to which we have already referred. The scenery 
of this neighborhood can scarcely be equaled, even in Switz- 
erland, though it is at present almost entirely unknown. 
Cairngorm, Benbuinach, Benaven, and Ben Macdhui sur- 
round Loch Avon and the forest of Glen Avon. The Banff- 
shire side of Ben Macdhui forms a magnificent precipice of 
fifteen hundred feet, which descends sheer down into the 
loch. This lonely and solemn lake is fed by the streams 
flowing from the snows that lie all the year round in the 
corries of the mountains above. These streams leap down 
from the bare and jagged cliffs in the form of broken cat- 
aractg. One of these falls has a descent of nine hundred 
