30 A VERTEBRATE FAUNA OF THE MORAY BASIN. 



able, will not take a lure of any kind ; we certainly never took 

 one nor rose one though trying it on several occasions ; they do, 

 however, rise at times in the pool immediately below the falls 

 at Achness. We mention this here, as in our experience fish 

 rarely do rise well in streams whose sides are wholly shut in 

 with high rocks. 



Some distance below the junction of the Brora and Blackwater 

 the united waters run smoothly through grassy haughs into Loch 

 Brora, which is almost four miles long. The scenery here is 

 perhaps the most beautiful of any on the east coast. At the head 

 of the loch is a wood of mixed birch and alder, the haunt of many 

 ducks, and here we have seen a great number of Wigeon, once 

 about thirty drakes all together, and this in the breeding season. 

 On the right-hand side of the loch is the fir wood of Ledmore, and 

 lower down the rock of Carral rises almost straight out from the 

 water, its lower slope covered with birch and rowan trees, whose 

 fading leaves glow in the autumn with beautiful red and russet 

 brown tints. 



On the left hand is the birch wood of Greeanen, then the com- 

 paratively old fir wood of Gordonbush,^ on a rise in which nestles 

 the beautiful shooting lodge, and beyond that a long stretch of 

 birch wood extending the whole way along the hill-side. After 

 leaving the loch the river runs through a most uninteresting 

 country, mostly arable, though some of the best early spring 

 pools are situated here, past the Brora coal pit, and enters the sea 

 at the little fishing village of Brora. Nearly the whole of the 

 river below the loch runs over a stony or gravelly bottom, and 

 affords good spawning ground for the salmon. 



There are no hills of any great height or importance in this 

 area, with the exception of Ben Armine, with its two not very 

 distinct hills — Creasj Mhor and Creag Beof. It is a green hill, and 

 the whole of it is under deer. Eagles and Peregrines breed there 

 regularly and are fortunately preserved. Above Gordonbush the 

 peculiar conical hill of Beinn Smeoral rises (1667 feet), and a 

 little to the east is Kollieben, cold and damp on the north-east, 

 drier and with rocky terraces on its south-western side. This latter 



^ Since much damaged by the gale on November 18th, 1894. 



