DESTRUCTION CAUSED THEREBY TO WOODS AXD TREES. 83 



It was observed that the strongest blasts recurred at intervals of 

 about five minutes between each gust, and the recurrence of 

 these intense gusts was marked by a strong swirling and lifting 

 power, accompanied at the same time by a cracking, rumbling 

 sound in the upper air, giving one the impression that it was 

 descending towards the earth, a feature which, Mr. Buchan 

 states, has been observ^ed in former storms. It should be noted 

 that the damage done to plantations was observed to take place 

 at different heights from the ground, as evinced by the stems 

 being twisted and broken across, as we have stated, frequently 

 several feet above ground, and branches torn off and wrenched 

 about at different points in the woods, which is accounted for 

 by this swirling power referred to. Several steep barometric 

 gradients* were ascertained to have characterised this storm, as 

 is generally the case in very severe gales. Between Braemar 

 and Logie-Coldstone very severe damage w^as sustained by the 

 young and thriving plantations of about fifty years' growth, the 

 principal destruction taking place about 9 P.M., when the firs 

 were cracking and snapping, and being blown about and athwart 

 each other in every direction, and it is ascertained that at that 

 hour over that distiict, the gradient was as steep as one inch 

 in 118 miles, which is pretty severe, and will tend to account for 

 the confusion into which the victims of the gale in these woods 

 were liurled. 



In the grounds of Dunecht, Aberdeenshire, many hundreds 

 of trees of about fifty years' growth were blown down between 

 9 and 10 p.m., many of them being severely twisted and destroyed. 

 These were chiefly larch and Scots fir, and were very healthy 

 and tlirivin^^ In the forests of the Perthshire Highlands, and 

 generally in the central districts of Scotland north of the Forth, 

 the loss sustained by woodlands has been very severe. In Glen 

 Lyon, for instance, whole plantations of fine old Scots fir and 

 larch have been levelled with the ground, not a tree left stand- 

 ing to mark the spot of what was last autumn a thriving and 

 well-wooded district, in rich luxuriance of pine-clad verdure. 

 Many of the trees were of very considerable age, and may be 

 termed heavy timber. As illustrative of the extreme force of 

 the hurricane, it was observed that where the trees had rooted 

 themselves in the fissures of the rocky headlands and crags, the 

 l(jwer portions of their thick trunks were twisted round and 

 shivered into the consistence of matchwood, and so forming a 

 joint near the roots. At Itossie Priory, near Dundee, several 

 thousands of trees have been overturnL'd. The storm seems to 

 have struck right on the broadside of a large plantation, and at 

 once to have cleared for itself an entrance into the heart of the 



• ^coUish Metcorolofjical Hodcly Juninal, p. 359, ct infra. 



