PHYSICAL FEATURES. 



29 



incline and more commanding appearance looking much higher 

 and grander than its really higher but gentler-sloping neighbour, 

 Ben Veallich (1936 feet). 



Some of the upper parts of this drainage system are the 

 dreariest-looking of countries, perhaps none more so than the flows 

 at the foot of Ben Griam Bheag and around Loch an Paiathair, and, 

 again, round the upper reaches of the tributary Free. But they 

 are, all the same, of great interest to the naturalist in the summer, 

 as this country is a great breeding-ground of the Greenshank and 

 the Wigeon, besides many other interesting species, while in the 

 autumn these flows are resorted to by the deer, after which the 

 sportsman will have many a wet and close crawl before he can 

 hope to get a shot. 



Next in order and importance comes the Brora, as well from an 

 angling point of view as from its size, for, though the Shin has 

 the larger drainage area, we doubt if it yields anything like the 

 number of salmon. The Brora itself rises in the parish of Rogart, 

 and is of small importance in comparison with its larger affluent, 

 the Blackwater. Except in the very uppermost reaches, there are 

 few pools of any importance, it being more a rapid, strong stream 

 than a river. It drains a large part of the parish of Eogart, a 

 country studded with many lochs and numerous small hills. 



In its lower reaches, the Brora, immediately before it is joined 

 by the Blackwater, is very prettily wooded, the banks being clothed 

 with birch-trees, some of them very old, and also alder-trees. 



The Blackwater is really the main river, and has its origin in 

 the hills of Ben Armine. There are no lochs of any importance 

 throughout its whole length. It has two branches, but while one 

 runs through a comparatively hilly country, the other winds its 

 way through some most desolate, flat, low-lying country until its 

 junction with the first. 



Like its sister river the Helmsdale, the Brora throughout most 

 of its length has a gravelly bottom, but, from Pollie to Balnacoil, 

 the course of the Blackwater is almost wholly rocky. The greater 

 part of this rocky bed lies between the falls at Achness and those 

 at Balnacoil, and here the river is in many places inaccessible. It 

 is also reported that the fish, even in those pools that are get-at- 



