42 A VERTEBRATE FAUNA OF THE MORAY BASIN. 



Not far from the head of the glen is the pretty reedy loch of 

 Kinellan, in which are numbers of Coots, Water-hens, and Wild 

 Ducks, and also a colony of Black-headed Gulls ; it lies just on 

 the watershed between the Peffery and the Conon. 



The flats about Dingwall are composed of rich heavy soil, 

 which continue all the way to the Conon river. Crossing the 

 river, however, the ground to the Muir of Ord, on the Inverness- 

 shire march (for, so far, the country we have been describing lies 

 wholly in Ross-shire) is, for the most part, sandy and gravelly. Trees 

 of all kinds grow in it, both soft and hard wood, judging from the 

 well-kept woods near Conon House, through which the railway runs. 



From the line, the view looking up the valley of the Orrin 

 branch of the Conon is very remarkable. Numberless rugged- 

 looking hills, apparently of no great elevation, dot the middle 

 distance, rising in the farther distance to the high summits of 

 the watershed. 



The gravelly bank just mentioned would appear to occupy the 

 rising ground of the neck of land that connects the Black Isle 

 with the mainland, but on either side the lower-lying ground is 

 rich and heavy. 



Entering Inverness-shire from the north, and looking south 

 and west, the whole country appears richly wooded. Near hand 

 is the thickly planted hill of Farley. Far in the distance rise the 

 high, rugged, peaks of the interior of the county, and in the near 

 vicinity lies the beautifully wooded valley of the Beauly with its 

 varied scenery. Eastward, a splendid view is obtained of the 

 Beauly Firth and the far away shores of the Moray Firth, while 

 on the left hand lie the shores of the Black Isle, terminated in 

 the whin- and fir-covered hill of Craigton. 



From this point, too, nearly the whole way to Clachnaharry, 

 there is splendid arable land, more especially about Clunes and 

 Lentran ; above this is a broad belt of woodland, and then the open 

 moor. Near Moniack Castle is a deep depression, evidently the 

 old bed of a loch ; this is now all drained and cultivated, a small 

 burn running through the middle of it. The rock shows through 

 the hillside hereabouts in many places, proving the thinness of 

 the soil, and broom and whins grow freely. 



