PHYSICAL FEATURES. 



115 



composed, partly to the thick covering of drift and peat which 

 clothes their sides and sweeps out of the corries over the lower parts 

 of the summit ridge. Where the higher tops are of quartzite, 

 as on Geal Carn, Cam-a-Glascoill, and Carn-na-Bruar, there 

 is a good deal of bare stony ground, and on the Eachrach and 

 along the deep ravine of the Kymah a considerable amount of crag 

 and stony scree. The slate hills, on the other hand, such as Carn 

 Mor, Letterach, and Carn Liath, are smooth and heather-clad, and, 

 with the exception of the extreme summit, generally covered with 

 deep peat-mosses, the breeding-ground of the few pairs of Dunlin 

 that frequent these hills. 



The Corryhabbie range is almost entirely composed of quartz- 

 ite, and, being comparatively bare of drift and peat, presents a 

 much more rugged appearance than the hills described above, 

 from which it is separated by Glen Suie and the deep gorge of the 

 Fiddich. 



Farther to the north rises the long ridge and sharp granite 

 peak of Ben Einnes, the highest and most conspicuous hill of 

 the district, crowned with the weathered crags, known locally as 

 Scurrans (Gaelic Sgoran), so characteristic of a granite mountain. 



The smooth, heather-covered range of the Cromdales, on the 

 west side of Strathavon, is again almost entirely composed of 

 quartzite and quartz flagstones. The east side rises steeply from 

 the valley, with a few rock scars and scree slopes on the brow 

 of Carn Eachie and the summit of Carn-a-Chaise, the haunt of 

 a pair or two of Ptarmigan and a favourite nesting-ground of the 

 Golden Plover. The western slopes are thickly clothed with drift, 

 and sweep gently down to the fertile haughs of Cromdale and the 

 alluvial terraces of the Spey. 



Notes on Trout in Streams from the Ladder Hills. 



The number and quality of the trout in the streams that flow 

 off the hills at the head of Glenlivet appear to depend chiefly 

 upon the nature of the superficial covering — i.e. the drift — and 

 not upon that of the rock of the country through whicli they flow. 



