461 
of Edinburgh, Session 1885-86. 
an inlet of the sea, and as such possessed of the distinctive marine 
characteristics. As a salmon river, it ranks next to the Tay and 
the Tweed. It is particularly noted for the suddenness and in- 
tensity of its floods, and for the variable nature of the channel, the 
stream being frequently diverted in a new direction. Twenty-five 
years ago a channel was cut to turn the river from the village of 
Kingston, many of the houses of which had been undermined and 
carried away. One result was the destruction of the harbour, so 
that now a boat can enter or leave the river only in the calmest 
weather, and then at high tide. This fact added considerably to 
the difficulties of work in the bay, and prevented it from being so 
complete as we desired. The bay is very shallow near the shore, 
and the depth is yearly diminishing on account of the stones and 
silt brought down by the river. The beach on each side for several 
miles is covered with fields of river -borne shingle massed in wave-like 
ridges parallel to the coast line, and hardly touched by vegetation.* 
The town of Lossiemouth lies 7J miles to the west of the Spey, 
and Buckie 5 miles to the east. Halfway to Buckie, 2J miles east 
of Tugnet, is the fishing village of Port Gordon, the nearest harbour 
to the Spey available in ordinary weather. 
The river near the mouth is confined to a narrow channel 
(250 feet wide at high water, and about 150 at low tide), and 
partly on this account and partly because of the slope of its bed, it 
is very rapid. The depth varies from 3 to 6 feet at low tide, and 
every flood effects some change in the position of the shingle banks 
and shoals. The western side of the river near the mouth is a 
shingle bank running into a line of low sandy islands ; on the east 
there are simple shingle heaps forming a breakwater about 30 yards 
wide which separates the river from the sea. Just at the mouth a 
ridge of shingle, entirely bare at low tide, runs in an east-north- 
easterly direction, and sends the river current out to sea towards 
* Mr Balmer informs us that the river was diverted in February 1860 to a 
straight course, in the expectation that by its action on the shingle banks it 
would gradually move back to its old westerly position. Instead of doing so, 
it cut a new channel more to the east, and continued for several months to 
extend this until the mouth had advanced about quarter of a mile to the east- 
ward. Then the normal action recommenced, and shingle has been steadily 
laid down on the east bank and cut off from the western ever since, so that the 
mouth is moving westward every month; and in a few years it is expected to 
come back to the position it occupied prior to 1860. 
