gan to read, as it was cold, each of them should take a glass of spirits. As they were viewing the print a second time, another person arrived to hear the devotions of the day. The landlord moved that they should each have a second glass. This also being agreed to and drunk, they turned over the title page, and came to the epistle to the reader. Some proposed they should begin by reading this, others that it should be passed over. Some again proposed, as the bottle was on the table, that they should take another glass, and consider of it. So they did, and by the time public worship in the church was over, the people here were nearly all drunk, and not above a sentence of the book read.

I wished to get a view from some high mountain in this part of the country; but I found I was too far from the sca here, as I wished not only to see the country, but the ocean, from an elevated situation. I therefore directed my course northward, and came to Belrinnis, a high mountain on the banks of the Spey, about twenty miles from the Murray Firth, in Aberlour parish.

BELRINNIS.

It being a very fine day, immediately after breakfast, I set out to climb this high mountain, which is seen by mariners coming from the northern ocean before any other land; and which, by a barometer I carried with me, I found near three thousand feet above the level of the sea. But, though the day was extremely clear before I reached the top, I

found myself enveloped in a cloud, whence I could see any object distinctly only at a few yards distance. Perceiving a fine breeze as I was ascending, I hoped the cloud would disperse, and therefore, though I felt it extremely cold, and myself extremely hungry, having foolishly put nothing in my pocket, I resolved to remain there some time. But, to my astonishment, while I was stepping about to keep myself warm, on the top of the hill, I perceived something of an uncommon appearance through the mist at a distance. I approached it indeed, not without fear, and at length found it to be a phalanx of wedders, or sheep three years old, on the top of the hill, ready to defend themselves from every attack. They were arranged in a line, forming a blunt wedge, with an extremely large one in the middle, having a large black forehead, and a pair of tremendous horns. There were about a hundred in front, and about fifty on each side of him. A number of weaker ones were in the rear, and not one of them eating, but looking sternly at me. I was not afraid, knowing them to be sheep; yet I was not quite easy, as, if any fox had appeared at this time in attacking him and even chasing him, they might have killed me. These wedders are sent up into the hill in the end of April, or early in May, and the proprietors never look after them till about the end of October. It is well known they never sleep all at a time, but, as is the case with crows, geese, and other gregarious animals, there is always one at a distance on the look out. They never rest in a hollow, even in the most stormy night, but upon a rising ground, where they can

see all around; and, when they are attacked by a fox, or dogs, their assailants never fail to be killed. When furiously attacked, they form themselves into a circle, their heads all out ward, and the weaker ones in the centre; and if, as it sometimes happens, that a fox takes a spring, and leaps in among them, they instantly turn, and boxing him with their head, and stamping him with their feet, and tossing him with their horns, never fail to kill him; his ribs being generally all broken. When domesticated, animals generally leave their protection to man; but, when left to themselves, both instinct and experience teaches them how to defend themselves. When these sheep on the top of the hill saw me retire they grew more careless, and did not keep their ranks so straight; but whenever I turned, and was approaching them, they looked more steadily at me, stood closer together, and firmed their ranks more regularly; and, I verily believe, had I attempted to attack them, they would have resisted. I had once a mind to try it, but I confess I was afraid, as I observed them seemingly bending their knees, to make a spring at me.

I amused myself for some time with the various vegetable productions on the top of this hill. I observed four or five different species of heath, which, with cup-moss, yellow fog, as it is called by the common people, and two or three species of short tough grass, were the only vegetables I saw here. Round all the top of it I only found one small dwarfish plant of the heath, called foxtail. In a small hollow, with some water in it, I found a young trout. How it could come there I know not. It is

observed in India, that in appearance it sometimes rains fishes, that thousands of them are sometimes found soon after rain on the tops of the houses, which, as they were in the land of Judea, are generally flat; and this in inland places, which have no communication either with the sea, lakes, or rivers. It is, however, found, that the ova of fishes, insects, &c. are not only blown by the wind, but carried from one place to another, by having adhered to the wings and feathers of aquatic birds; and I am of opinion, that the ovum from which this trout sprung, and several other small fishes I saw in the rills near the top, must have come here one of these two ways.

So quick is the growth of animals and vegetables in India, that the ova of fishes blown or carried to the tops of houses, and into the fields, in a day or two after rain, by the moisture and heat, become alive and able to swim. Indeed, even on the banks of the Spey the growth of some animals and vegetables is astonishing. Rhubarb, it

is well known, even in the north of Europe, will sometimes in May or June, after rain, grow nine or ten inches in twenty-four hours; and that goslings, in the course of two or three months, are as big as their mother. With regard to fishes, even in cold countries, where the growth of every thing is more slow than in warm climates, it is known they sometimes arrive at the ne plus ultra of their growth in a very short time. As an instance: not long ago, as a flood, early in the

spring, had happened in the Spey,

and banks,

trees, &c. &c. had been carried along with it, some thousands of salmon fry, about two or three inches

long, were found in a hollow, left by the water. With a view, if possible, to ascertain their growth, hundreds of them were taken, and triangles, squares, ovals, circles, &c. carefully and neatly cut in their tails and fins, they were put into the Spey, several of which were caught in August and September four and five pounds weight.

I began to be so extremely hungry, that I would have given five shillings for a halfpenny roll; and it being about four in the afternoon, I had thoughts of descending; when, all at once, as I was looking towards the east, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, the clouds went off from the mountain, and fields, hills, rivers, and other objects thirty miles distant, all at once appeared to view. The sight was grand in the extreme, and called up immediately to my mind that omnipotent being who makes the clouds his chariot, and rides on the wings of the wind. Astonishment seized upon my mind, and I stood admiring the grandeur of the scene. Before nor since I never felt myself impressed with such sublime ideas of the power of him who created the mountains, bade the sun, whose light and influence at once beamed upon me, to roll, and the far-distant ocean, which also appeared to view, and whose noise I even here heard, to hush and be still. Instead of the sensations of hunger and fatigue, which the moment before made me uneasy, I perceived a secret enjoyment, a calm satisfaction, and a glow of love to God and to the creatures of his hand, which no language can express. When I saw Peterhead on the east, at the distance of near sixty miles, and thousands of variegated intervening ob