86 THE TAY BRIDGE GALE OF DECEMBER 28, 1S79, AND THE 



pally Scots fir, only about a dozen spruces and fifty larches 

 having suffered, and not a single hard- wooded tree. The plan- 

 tations which suffered most were fully exposed to the blast, and 

 one in particular had been recently severely thinned purposely 

 for the preservation of many naturally sown plants of larch and 

 Scots fir with which it abounded. Had the c^ale blown from anv 

 other quarter, the destruction would probably ' have been far 

 greater; for in this district trees are seldom uprooted by the 

 westerly winds, which are the prevailing winds, and against 

 wliich the trees seem by nature to fortify themselves. In the 

 natural woods of Abernethy and Duthil, and others in Inverness- 

 shire, only a troe here and there perished ; the w^nd, although it 

 blew in strong gusts, was fairly in one direction, so that very 

 few" blown trees crossed each other, but lay parallel, or the one 

 on the top of the other. A considerable number of trees, from 

 thirty to forty years of age, had their tops broken off, but these 

 had all been injured by squirrels, the greatest tree enemy in that 

 thickly wooded country. In some adjacent counties, where the 

 same precaution of selling the fallen timber at once was not 

 adopted, and wdiere it was not offered for sale till February or 

 March, the highest offer made for it did not come up to twopence 

 per foot, and that for beautiful large and heavy trees. 



From an estimate we have endeavoured to prepare from data 

 roughly furnished by various correspondents, we are inclined to 

 arrive at a definite conclusion as to the probable loss to Perth- 

 shire alone, and probably to Scotland also generally, from this 

 gale. Approximating the total number of trees blown over in 

 the entire county at 230,000 (one reliable practical opinion 

 places it at 250,000), and assuming one-half of these to be larch 

 of from thirty to sixty years' growth, we may estimate say 

 100,000 trees at 6s. each, or £30,000 ; and taking the remainder, 

 or say 130,000 trees, chiefly spruce and Scots fir, of similar age 

 and size, at 3s. 6d. per tree (surely a low estimate), we have 

 further £22,750, or a total of £52,750 value of timber overturned 

 by this storm in this county alone. If we further estimate the 

 entire number of trees blown down in Scotland by this gale at 

 '750,000 — and we have reason to believe they exceed 1,000,000 

 of all sizes — and divide the quantity into probably 350,000 

 larch, and 300,000 spruce and Scots fir, at the previous valua- 

 tions we arrive at a total loss of £157,500 value in orrowincr 

 wood to the shelter and amenity of the country, and in this 

 estimate no account is taken of hard wood or park timber of old 

 and heavy dimensions, the value of the loss of whish in these 

 respects is incalculable. Prior to the gale, the demand for home 

 timber was very sluggish, owning to the unsettled state of the 

 mining industries, and the large supplies of foreign timber now 

 used for railway sleepers. Before the storm good measurable 



