XVlll PREFACE. 



Inverness, and thence east to Nairn, and further inland 

 east to the old drove-road and the middle Findhorn, and 

 Ferness, and embracing the numerous valleys which bear 

 their streams northward to Loch Ness, and southward to 

 the Spey, and the long upper valleys of the Findhorn and 

 Nairn rivers. This area is almost unknown to us in 

 detail, though appreciated perhaps in a more general 

 sense. 



This district may be said to be sufficiently shown 

 upon sheets 73-4 and 83-4 of the Ordnance Survey 

 Map of Scotland, on the 1 inch to the mile scale. 



We have just mentioned how vast is the area of the 

 Moray Basin. It embraces all the country drained by 

 the rivers flowing into the Moray Firth between the 

 Ord of Caithness and Cairnbulg in North-east Aberdeen- 

 shire, thus including the greater portion of the three 

 northern and largest counties of Scotland, viz., Suther- 

 land, Ross, and Inverness, besides the smaller ones of 

 Banfi*, Moray, and Nairn, and part of Cromarty. 



The spelling of Gaelic names is always unsatisfactory, 

 as there seem to be so many different ways of doing so. 

 In our present volumes we have followed, in almost all 

 instances, that used on the Ordnance Survey sheets, 

 much against our own inclinations in very many 



