2 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 ina 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 woods 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 
