PHYSICAL FEATURES 



97 



to the pale brown, or browny yellow, of the sheep's wool often 

 obtained on the mainland of Scotland. 



What are those curious, fairy-ring-like semi-circles in the loose 

 sand, as if drawn by some one who had been measuring the sands 

 of time with a pair of compasses, and had left his circles only half 

 completed? For a second or two the novice hesitates, but the 

 truth at once flashes across his eye, accustomed, it may be, to 

 quickness of perception. These are the semi-circles made in the 

 loose, fine sand by the tufted bent-grasses,^ beaten down by the 

 wind and svnshed to and fro — perhaps the wind of the day before. 

 It has a remarkable appearance, but the same occurs amongst all 

 sandhills where the sand is fine and powdery.^ 



The Old Bar of the Findhorn and the Adjoining Coast-Line. 



Situated about half-way between the present mouths of the Find- 

 horn and Nairn is a long line of bent-covered sandhills; this 

 represents the Old Bar of the Findhorn, and shows where once 

 that river made its exit. It lies at least half a mile sea-wards 

 from the line of heather and stunted firs that mark what was 

 probably the old beach, judging from the stones and gravel that 

 edge this line, the intervening flat being inundated at high tides. 

 These flats are covered with grass, which, in the drier and higher 

 portions, are grazed by cattle, and are also intersected by a canal, 

 up which the water runs at every full tide, thus turning the Old 

 Bar into an island; and as might be expected, they are lively 

 with bird-life in the summer. In one part where there is a marshy 

 piece of ground, the Redshank is extremely abundant and noisy ; 

 Skylarks keep constantly rising before one. Oyster-catchers sound 

 their shrill notes of alarm, and Sheldrakes in every direction 

 either fly round one, or are seen in the distance trying to hurry 

 their young broods, which had been hatched in the neighbouring 

 rabbit-holes, to the safer element of water. 



^ Bent-grass, AmmophUa arimdiiuicea. 



' The atjove is put concisely by Hugh Miller. He writes : * There occurred 

 on the surface of the sandhills, around decaying tufts of the bent-grass, deeply- 

 marked circles, as if drawn by a pair of compasses or a trainer, the effects of eddy- 

 winds whirling round, as on a pivot, the decayed plants.' 



G 



