a county of Scotland, comprehending the west part of Murray. It is bounded on the north by Murray frith, on the west and south by Inverness, and on the east by Elgin. The length of it amounts to 20 miles, and the breadth to 14. The air is temperate and salubrious, and the winters are remarkably mild. The face of the country is rough and mountainous; yet there are some fruitful straths, or valleys, which produce good crops of oats and barley; but in general the country is much better adapted for pasturage. Here are also large woods of fir, and other trees, that afford shelter to the game, of which there is great plenty. A strath is a long, narrow valley, with a river running through the bottom. Of these, the most remarkable remarkable in this county, are Strathnairn, on the river of that name, in the south-west part of the shire; and on the south-east side, Stratherin, on both sides of Findhorne river. Nairn is well watered with streams, rivulets, and lakes, abounding with fish. In the southern part there is a small lake, called Moy, surrounding an island, on which there is a castle belonging to the laird of McIntosh; but the greater part of the thire is peopled by the Fraers, a warlike Highland clan, whose chief, the Lord Lovat, lost his life on a scaffold for having been concerned in the late rebellion. Here are a great number of villages; but no towns of note except Nairn, supposed to be the Taeis of Ptolemy, situated at the mouth of the river which bears the same name; a royal borough, which gave a title of lord to an ancient family, forfeited in the rebellion of 1715. The harbour, which opened in the Murray frith, is now choked up with sand; and the commerce of the town is too inconsiderable to deserve notice. The people in general subsist by feeding sheep and black cattle. About four miles from Nairn stands the castle of Calder, on the river of that name, belonging to a branch of the family of Campbell. In this neighbourhood we find a quarry of freestone, and many signs of copper. About six miles to the north-west of Nairn, a new fort hath been lately built by order of the government, at a place called Ardsier, a small isthmus upon the Murray frith, which it is intended to command.