PHYSICAL FEATURES. 



131 



Looking up the deep gorge of the Sluggan of Kincardine, 

 that cuts through the spur of the Cairngorms which reaches out 

 its long arm, and separating the great widenings of the Spey 

 valley known as Glenmore and Abernethy, the view startlingly 

 reminds us of a deep Norwegian pine-clad glen, the far-off yet 

 towering snow-ranges of the giant Cairngorms, still further suggest- 

 ing the high fjelds of Norway. This effect, as seen by us, was 

 heightened by a fresh fall of snow which took place on the 

 18th May— the 'gowk-storm' of 1892. 



The high dividing ridge referred to above extends from the 

 bases of Cairngorm above Glenmore shooting-lodge — where it is 

 cut again by the Sluggan of Abernethy — down to the loch of 

 Phitiulais, close to the Spey. The range is called by the in- 

 habitants generally the Newton ^ Hills, and it reaches an altitude 

 of about 2500 feet, or the same elevation as the earns of the Cam 

 District. 



We believe we here discovered a Gaelic name used principally 

 upon the west or Glenmore side which appeared certainly to be 

 markedly descriptive, as most Gaelic names of places are. Spelling 

 it to the best of our ability, it reads thus, Drhuim na chroisk, 

 and the meaning is 'the ridge of the crosses,' admirably de- 

 scriptive of the two deep ' sluggans,' or rifts, which cut it at right 

 angles. 



It requires no great stretch of imagination to summon up an 

 idea of the many changes that have taken place in the fauna of this 

 country, from the time when the Wolf and the Wild Boar roamed 

 almost undisturbed to the time of the death of the last wolves not 

 so very many years back, before the beginning of the present 

 century. We can also, in imagination, go back still further to the 

 time when the wild white cattle stalked through the dense woods, 

 when the Moray Firth had not encroached so far upon the land, nor 

 submerged the old forests and peat-mosses which are still visible 

 in the shallow water of Burghead and Findhorn Bays. Even of 

 later years, as the process of destruction advanced, changes in our 

 fauna are constantly taking place, and are being brought under 

 notice. Looking at the history of the old denudation of the 



^ Pronounced Nettin. 



