8 ID

from the conſolidation and proper texture of the ground, ofherwiſe looſe and porous,'0ver which the water is directed. Springs are ſo numerous, that, in moſt places, hardly a houſe or village is to be found which has not a ſpring or a rivulet

in its immediate vicinIty-

Fiſp.--The inhabitants are commonly well Tupplied with excellent fiſh, eſpecially from Lochleven, deſervedly famous on account of its trouts. The trouts caught in the river Leven are ſaid to be much larger than thoſe caught in the loch; many of them weigh above five pound. The river alfo abounds with pike and eel.

The trouts of Liochleven, only a few years ago, ſold here at 1d. each, great and ſmall, and the perch at 1d. the dozen; and about 25 ycars ago, at half that price: the fiſhing was then let at 209 merks Scotch, Trout are now raiſed to'4d. per pound 3 perch to 2d. per dozen 3 and the pike to 2d. per pound.(See Statiſtical Hiſtory of Kinroſs.)

,

Savallows.=-One advantage which this county enjoys, with moſt others, is derived from the ſwallow."Theſe migratory birds are of an incalculable advantage to the intereſts of fo- ciety at large, but more immediately to the huſbandman. Nature has, by inſtin&, directed them to build their neſts and bring forth their young, at that ſeaſon of the year when thoſe inſeäts on which they live are beginning to injure the riſing crops, by depoſiting their eggs, for the produCtion of cater- pillars. Were thoſe myriads of inſe&s, with which the air then ſwarms, allowed to By about without any enemy to de- (troy them, the caterpillars, their offspring, wovld, in a hort time, become ſo numerous that/every vegetable would be to- tally deſtroyed. One of their greateſt enemies is the ſwallow. The moſt of common birds alſo feed their young with cater- pillars, which circumſtance afſtoniſhingly leflens. their num- ber;