186 WILD SPORTS OF THE HIGHLANDS. [cuap. xx1u1. 
CHAPTER XXIII. 
Findhorn River—Bridge of Dulsie—Beauty of Scenery—Falls of River— 
Old Salmon-fisher—Anglers—Heronry—Distant View—Sudden Rise of 
River— Mouth of River. 
Norurne can exceed the beauty of the river and the sur- 
rounding scenery when it suddenly leaves the open and barren 
ground and plunges at once into the wild and extensive woods 
of Dunearn and Fairness. The woods at Dunearn are particu- 
larly picturesque, in consequence of the fir-trees (at least those 
near the river) having been left rather farther apart than is 
usual, and no tree adds more to the beauty of scenery than the 
Scotch fir, when it has room to spread out into its natural shape. 
The purple heather, too, in these woods forms a rich and soft 
groundwork to the picture. What spot in the world can excel 
in beauty the landscape comprising the old Bridge of Dulsie, 
spanning with its lofty arch the deep black pool, shut in by grey 
and fantastic rocks, surmounted with the greenest of grass 
swards, with clumps of the ancieut weeping-birches with their 
gnarled and twisted stems, backed again by the dark pine-trees? 
The river here forms a succession of very black and deep pools, 
connected with each other by foaming and whirling falls and 
currents, up which in the fine pure evenings you may see the 
salmon making curious leaps. I shall never forget the impres- 
sion this scenery made on me when I first saw it. The bridge of 
the Dulsie, the dark-coloured river, and the lovely woodlands, 
as I viewed them while stretched on the short green sward above 
the rocks, formed a picture which will never be effaced from 
my memory. I cannot conceive a more striking coup d’cil, nor 
one more worthy of the pencil of an artist. On these rocks are 
small flocks of long-horned, half-wild goats, whose appearance, 
with their shaggy hair and long venerable beards, adds much to 
the wildness of the scene. 
The blackcock and the roebuck now succeed the grouse and 
