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Eye-to-eye contact and a shock &ndash the rush of seeing a wild and experienced animal

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Eye-to-eye contact and a shock – the rush of seeing a wild and experienced animal sizing you up.During the week, the school, thought to number about 130, but sadly far off the 500 mark needed for a viable long-term population, reveals its well-known acrobatic ability. It is said a bottlenose swimming alongside a top Olympic champion will expend an eighth of the human's energy They can hit 25mph. Watching them belting along, you don't doubt it.Mystery still surrounds the meaning of their calls, ranging from brays and yelps to squeals and ultra-sonic sounds. We learn that the females teach their calves a whistle, a signature tune which will be the baby's own "name" into adulthood.People are also putting dolphin names to faces, or rather fins. In the effort to ensure the cetaceans' survival, the NERC Sea Mammal Research Unit and the University of Aberdeen are compiling dossiers to keep tabs on the population.Dolphins and seals do face dangers here.

There's boat noise, organochlorine compounds, raw sewage outfalls, and still the threat of entanglement in the illegal salmon nets at Spey Bay which, with their orange and white buoys, masquerade as markers to try to fool the bailiff. Archer stresses, though, that every tourist who looks, questions and records – and appreciates the fun, because the WDCS holiday is one of walks, pubs, badger and otter watching, and easy companionship – helps the dolphins."There's no real magic wand It's down to them to recover their numbers," he says. "But what we can do is be interested, ensure their habitat is clean, that food is there. The dolphins themselves will be rewarded because it's rewarding and special for the public to see them."Moray Firth dolphin tourism contributes annually nearly £750,000 to the local economy. The dolphins, of course, don't care whether we pitch up to see them, and their antics certainly aren't laid on for us. But this is what makes the waiting all the more valuable.The FactsGetting thereA four-day "Out of the Blue" break with the Whale & Dolphin Conservation Society (01249 449500; co.uk) in Scotland costs £299 per person, based on two sharing, including meals and accomodation. Return flights with Easyjet (0800 6000 000; com) cost £100 from Luton to Inverness in June.

Return train fares from London to Inverness cost from £49.50.Further informationThe Highlands of Scotland Tourist Board (01997 421160; ).. Frances Eliza Hodgson Burnett was born in Cheetham Hill, Manchester, on 24 November 1849. After the death of her father in 1854, the family suffered hardship and in 1865 emigrated to the US, settling in Tennessee. In 1868 Hodgson managed to place a story with 'Godey's Lady's Book'. Within a few years she was being published regularly in journals such as 'Harper's' and several of her novels, including 'Little Lord Fauntleroy', her most successful book, first appeared as a serialisation.

This extract is taken from 'The Secret Garden', published in 1909. Hodgson Burnett died in Long Island, New York on 29 October 1924. The high walls which shut it in were covered with the leafless stems of climbing roses which were so thick that they were matted together. Mary Lennox knew they were roses because she had seen a great many roses in India.All the ground was covered with grass of a wintry brown and out of it grew clumps of bushes which were surely rosebushes if they were alive.

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