The and Extent. of Fife. Kinrosshire is bounded on the east and south by Boundaries Fifeshire, and on the north and west by Perthshire. It extends, from east to west, from the church of Fossaway due east to Auchmore bridge, the length of eleven miles and a quarter; and from Kelly bridge, nearly due north to Damhead, nine miles and three-eighths. The general figure of the county is somewhat circular, although the line of its boundary is very irregular. That which limits with Perthshire on the west and north measures twenty-one miles; but when taken in a right line, it extends to no more than about fourteen. The boundary with Fife measures nearly twenty-eight miles, but in a straight line it does not exceed nineteen. The county contains seventyeight square miles, or about 39,702 Scottish acres. surface of the country is greatly varied. The middle portion, which in point of extent comprehends about one-half of the whole, occupies a situation comparatively low, and may be considered as a kind of plain or flat, slightly varied with swells of gentle rising grounds. The boundaries of the county, in every direction, are hilly, or formed of a higher land than the Laigh or vale of Kinross, with one exception only, at the narrow passage on the eastern extremity of the county, where the river Leven issues from the celebrated loch of that name. The Ochil hills form the northern boundary of Kinross-shire; the Cleish hills, the southern; and Balneartie hill, and the West Lomond, or Bishop's hill, as it is called, bound it on the east and south-east quarters. The sides of these hills which face the central part of the county are for the most part excellent pastures, which generally retain a beautiful verdure; patches of moor-land occurring only near their summits. In the interior and higher part of the Ochils, however, heath becomes more abundant. The chief variety in the appearance of the low grounds is produced by the mixture Waters. of corn and grass lands, and by a few thriving plantations, interspersed with villages and houses, the possessions of the inhabitants. Some intervening morasses and extensive moors likewise variegate and blot the surface. Evea the margin of Lochleven is ornamented in this way by a common moor of more than 300 acres, in the neighbourhood of the town of Kinross, in the very centre of the county. The aspect of the whole shire is open and exposed, there being little of it inclosed, and many of the inclosures formed not of hedges but of stone walls. Lochleven. Of the waters of this county, that which merits atten loch must vary somewhat in different seasons. Waters. heavy rains and sudden thaws of the winter snow, it may have risen much higher than this number of inches. This lake is bounded on the east by the hills called the Lomonds, on the south by the hill of Balneartie, and on the west by the plain of Kinross. It is remarkahle for pro-Lochleven ducing trout of a large size, and with flesh of a pink trout. or reddish colour, approaching nearly to the taste and appearance of salmon. Some of them weigh from two to eight, and even ten pounds; but in general they are not of such magnitude. They are brought regularly to the Edinburgh market, where they find a ready sale. The high flavour and bright red colour of the trout are understood to rise from the food by which they are supported in the loch; it being a general rule, as formerly noticed, that while the flesh of trout is white in clear and limpid waters, the same sort, when found where the rivers pass with a slow stream through a tract of foul or meadow ground, have less or more redness in their colour. A considerable part of the bottom of Lochleven is pongy, from which aquatic plants rise in great abundance, and in many parts of the lake, towards the beginning of autumn, cover the surface of the water with their flowers: but the circumstance to which the high colour of the Lochleven trout is chiefly ascribed, is the vast quantity of small shell-fish of a red colour which abounds in the bottom of the loch, and especially among the aquatic plants. Its form is globular; and the trouts, when caught, have often their stomachs full of these fish. The trouts generally lie in deep water, and do not rise to any kind of fly or hook, however baited. It has been remarked, also, that in Lochleven are found all the different species of river trout, evidently appearing from the manner in which they are spotted; but after they have remained some time in the loch, and approached towards one pound in weight, they become red in the flesh. Indeed, the young Gairny. Waters. fry of all sorts are white in the flesh, and do not assume the colour common to the trout of this loch till they reach the size of a herring. The species called the galley trough or char is that chiefly admired. Besides the trout, pike, perch, and eels are found in the loch; the last of these in great abundance. Lochleven receives the water of three small rivers and several streamlets. Gairny, the southernmost stream in the county, is formed of two branches. One of them has it origin in the united parishes of Fossaway and Tilliebole, at no great distance from the Devan ; the other, its south branch, rises about the west end of Cleish parish, or the eastern point of Fossaway. The river formed by the union of these two branches divides the old parish of Tillibole, which is wholly in Kinross-shire, from the parish of Cleish. In its course eastward it becomes the boundary between the parishes of Kinross and Cleish, till on the east of Gairny bridge, on the line of the great road to Perth, it separates the latter parish from a portion of the parish of Portmoak, after which it falls into Lochleven. The water of this rivulet is commonly of a dark colour; which circumstance is probably owing to its passing through low meadow grounds and soils abounding with bog and peat-moss. The lands in the parish of Cleish and Portmoak, lying to the south of it, have for the most part a northern exposure. The next river to Gairny is South Quech, which takes its rise among the Ochils. The Quech, after running through a part of Fossaway parish, passes into the parish of Kinross, which it divides, not very unequally, in its course to the south-east; and passing near Kinross, at the south end of the town, enters Lochleven. North Quech, another principal stream or water in this county, has likewise its rise among the Ochil hills. The original springs form themselves into two branches, which after a uech. meandering course are united into one stream, that be- Waters. comes the boundary between the parishes of Orwell and Kinross, till its waters are lost in Lochleven, at the northwest corner of the loch. The water of both the Quechs is very pure and transparent, running on a gravelly channel almost the whole of the course. It sometimes, from the open nature of the under ground in particular places, and in the dry months of summer, entirely disappears. The smaller streams are not of such magnitude as to require particular notice, ven. Lochleven gives rise to the river Leven, which pass-River Le es through a considerable part of Fife into the sea, forming the largest water of that county. In the month of September, the eels, which greatly abound in Lochleven, begin to go down in great numbers to the sea; but this passage they only attempt during the night. When the season of the emigration arrives, the fishers place nets in the river, and draw them every two hours during the night. The nets are frequently found full. This sort of fishery, however, is attended with no great degree of pro fit; because here, as in the rest of Scotland, the people at large dislike the eel, on account of its resemblance to the serpent, As the serpent is always associated with the two horrible ideas of poison and of the Devil or Old Serpent, the eel, by association, partakes of the horror with which it is regarded. Besides Lochleven, there are several small lakes in the county; of these there are four in the parish of Cleish. The largest is about one mile and a half in circumference; the rest are much smaller. The whole four cover about 250 acres. The fish found in them are pike, perch, eel, and a few trouts. The soil of this county has that variety which is fre-Soil quent in Scotland. Part of it is of stiff clay, or boggy |