418 
ORIGINAL ARTICLES. 
however to the violent storms from the east and north-east, the 
shingle on this part of the coast is not only travelling continually 
westwards, bnt is in some places actually driven to a height con¬ 
siderably above that of high water. Dr. Gordon showed me some 
boulders which had within the last thirty years been taken out 
of the harbour and thrown down at its mouth, and which, carried 
westwards by storms, accumulated so as to form a bank in some 
places as much as twelve feet above high-water mark. It appears 
that a similar cause in ancient times, carried the shingle along the 
north coast of the Island, and so gradually blocked up the eastern 
entrance to Loch Spynie. In the “ Survey of the Province of 
Moray,” it is stated that “ the irruption of the Godwin sands hap¬ 
pened in the tenth century, in the reign of Malcolm III., and from 
Buchanan’s history it might be inferred, that its effects were not 
limited to that quarter alone, but must have extended over all the 
eastern coast of Britain.” Again, “ another storm, extremely violent 
also, happened in the 13th century, upon the eastern coast of Scot¬ 
land.” In the year 1266 a great wind arose from the north, on the 
eve of the Least of the 11,000 virgins, and the sea broke in, and 
many houses and villages were overwhelmed. “ There never was such 
a deluge,” says Fordun, lib. x. c. 22, “ since the times of Noah.” 
To one or both of these irruptions our author thinks that the sepa¬ 
ration of Loch Spynie from the sea on this side may with some 
probability be ascribed. At any rate, we may perhaps assume that 
this change did not take place later than the middle of the 13th 
century; though from the whole appearance of these ancient beaches, 
I should be inclined to believe that the sea has shut itself out from 
the land by the continual operation of existing forces, and that the 
change in geographical relations was by no means the result of a 
mere occasional disturbance. The communication with the sea at 
the west appears also to have been gradually cut off. The water 
of Loch Spynie was however then probably brackish, and the more 
so as at that time the Lossie appears to have run into it. At what 
period the river was turned into its present course, and whether 
by accident or design, does not appear to have been satisfactorily 
ascertained. 
At the close of the 14th century, we find the Lord Bishop Alex¬ 
ander Bar protesting against the Earl of Moray and the Burgesses 
of Elgin, respecting the right of fishing and of* the harbour, among 
other reasons, because “ The Bishops of Moray, our predecessors, 
“ with the knowledge and sufferance of the Earls, and of the Bur- 
“ gesses of Elgin, had, and were in the use of having, the inhabitants 
“ of the village of Spynie, in the name and right of the Bishops of 
“ Moray, fishers of seafish, sailing with their wives and families from 
“ Spynie to the sea, and returning in their boats with the fishes to 
“ the said harbour.” Still as Dr. Gordon well observes, “ the size 
“ and abundance of the oysters found in the shell-mounds at Brigzes 
“ prove that, when they were dredged in the Loch of Spynie, the 
