OAKS IN SCOTLAND. 203 



Another of the early Scottish recorded oaks growing on the 

 island of Inchmerin in Loch Lomond, has either so altered bv 

 its decay as to be now unrecognisable, or has disappeared 

 entirely. An examination of the island last year failed to lead 

 to the identification of " Jack Merin," as this oak was called, 

 although several very interesting and hoary veterans w^ere found, 

 and are now recorded in the appended returns. " Jack j\Ierin '* 

 stood near the middle of the island towards the east side, and 

 measured, on 22d September 1784, 18 feet 1 inch. It was then 

 *' fresh and vigorous, and remarkable for its fine expanded head, 

 without any appearance as yet of the stag horns." The only 

 oak tree now corresponding with the position in the island 

 ascribed to Jack, is a most magnificent specimen of a short- 

 stemmed spreading tree. Measured on loth August 1878, the 

 indefatigable forester who explored the island to endeavour to 

 identify and measure Jack's dimensions at that date, reports this 

 tree to be 22 feet 6 inches in girth at 2 feet from the ground, 

 and divides into several heavy limbs at 4 feet from the ground. 

 He estimated that the bark of this tree alone w^ould w-eioih about 

 3 tons, and that he had nowhere seen such a weight of oak 

 timber growing from a single trunk. This descrijjtion is not quite 

 incompatible with the meagre account handed down to us of 

 " Jack Merin," with whose site it corresponds, and although 

 Walker states the soil in 1784 to be " a moorish, weeping soil," 

 this also may hardly be considered as differing essentially from 

 the soil as stated in 1878, w^hen it w^as described as being 

 " deep, humid soil." At all events, if this tree be not the veri- 

 table "Jack Merin" of 1784, it occupies as nearly as possible 

 the same site, so that if Jack has since " gone aloft," to use the 

 words of Mr Gordon, who measured this and the other Loch 

 Lomond oaks in 1878, this veteran must have been his contem- 

 porary and neighbour, and as such deserves notice, as being now, 

 perhaps, the only living witness of his " ascent " ! Tlie next 

 oak in point of size on the island, in 1784 measured 11 feet 2 

 inches in girth. Such is all the description handed down to us. 

 Of course, from such meagre evidence it is now impossible to 

 identify this tree at the present day ; but we may give the par- 

 ticulars here of the only other very venerable and hoary relic 

 of an evidently far distant century growing near the northern 

 shores of the island. At 4 feet above ground it girthed, in 

 August 1878, 17 feet 6 inches, and at 7 feet the bole divides into 

 three huge limbs, the two largest of which measure respectively 

 12 feet, and G feet 9 inches in girth. A branch springing from 

 the largest limb measures *.> feet in girth, and the diameter of 

 the spread of branches is 111 feet. " Several branches of large 

 dimensions appear to have been wrenched off at various times in 

 its history, wliile its lean foliage and numerous old unrecui)erated 



