of Edinburgh, Session 1885 - 86 . 
479 
inches to more than a foot thick, 8 to 10 feet high, and many yards 
long, were undermined, and rushed down into the stream with a 
hoarse rattle. From the rate at which these banks were carried 
away it could he easily understood how the sea in the neighbour- 
hood of the mouth is constantly shoaling. In the forenoon, with 
the tide at half-flood, and a gale blowing from the north-west, the 
whole bay was bordered by a broad band of surf ; the waves first 
breaking more than a quarter of a mile from shore, re-formed in the 
foam to break and form again over and over before the final dash 
upon the shingle. As far as vision extended the sea, reflecting the 
intense blue of the sky, was tasselled with feathery jets of foam, 
shooting up with constant change of form and position all over its 
surface; and across it, as if drawn by a brush dipped in brown paint, 
lay the turbid stream of the river, disappearing towards the north- 
east. It was seen in the afternoon quite distinguishable from the 
rest of the water at Portessie, 6 miles away, where it hugged the 
shore, but not so closely as to prevent a belt of clear water lying 
within it. Where the line of breakers crossed the river mouth, the 
white colour of the waves gave place to yellow. As the river shot 
out the clear ripples of the sea waves ran up from the north-west, 
struck the rapid-running stream of muddy fresh water, and seemed to 
recoil as if from a solid obstacle : the whole stream was bent abruptly 
towards the east, no discoloration of the water being perceptible 
to the west of the river mouth. The diagram (Plate XV. fig. 3), 
where the sea water is shown in blue and the river water in brown, 
shows the manner in which the stream curved, and hardly exag- 
gerates the contrast of colour it presented. The temperature of the 
river near the mouth was 48 0, 3, a fall of 6° *9 from the previous 
afternoon; that of the surf at the river mouth was 51 -5, and a 
quarter of a mile west it was 55° ’0 f It was matter of extreme 
regret that no observation could be make on the bay or on the east 
side of the river, but no boat could face the weather. The roar of 
wind and thunder of surf, the rattle of the pebbles along the shore, 
and the periodical crash of the bank into the stream, were some- 
times almost drowned by the sound of an impetuous hail-shower, 
which one moment was tearing up the sand and gravel, and the next 
sweeping over the country, followed by magnificent sunshine. 
