106 A VERTEBRATE FAUNA OF THE MORAY BASIN. 



lodge is placed at the base of a central foot-hill of about 100 feet 

 in height, from which a view can be obtained of all the upper 

 valley from a lower elevation than that of the Buck. Several 

 minor valleys open up to sight through the undulations of the 

 lesser hills, which hold the several streams which unite with the 

 AlLt Deveron before its junction with the Blackwater, three- 

 quarters of a mile below the bridge on the county march. All 

 the lower hills, and the slopes of the rim itself to considerable heights 

 — as at Gauch Farm, near which the curious mineral called moun- 

 tain-leather is found in granite, and at Aldivalloch (famed in song) 

 — are cultivated with oats, barley, potatoes, and turnips ; and along 

 the course of the Allt Deveron around the shooting-lodge one 

 hill has been planted with pine. In the flatter portions of the circle 

 there are still areas of unreclaimed peat-land and mosses, where, 

 as already remarked, numerous remains of old forests are still 

 found, which gave the original Gaelic name to the district. 



Lower Cabrach or ' Strathdeveron.' 



Crossing the bridge over the united streams of the head- waters, 

 the last view of the Upper Valley is suddenly closed by an abrupt 

 winding of the road, and sudden contraction of the river banks, and 

 the river ' brattles ' with trotting steps between birch-clad braes of 

 a narrow glen. Above the right bank a range of heather, con- 

 tinuing the range of which, in the upper valley, Leids Hill, and 

 Mount Bladdoch are a part, forms a portion of the famous grouse 

 moors of the Duke of Eichmond's property, and extends down the 

 right side of the Deveron to near Beldorney, bending again still 

 further on to near Huntly. 



About a mile and a half down this narrow glen brings one 

 to the Grouse Inn or 'Eichmond Arms' of the Lower Cabrach, 

 950 feet above the sea. Here, as also in the Upper Cabrach, 

 the air is pure, elastic, and invigorating, even in the midst of 

 an unusually warm summer. Close below the Inn runs the 

 lovely clear thread of the Deveron, between steeply rising hills 

 clad in heather or cultivated slopes. A sense of retirement and 



