16 
Nature seemed to have “outlavished” herself in the profuseness 
of tree-growtb, from the seedlings of the year to the giant veterans 
of centuries. The company, on reaching the base of the hill, 
proceeded to ascend to its summit. A great storm about twenty 
years ago played serious havoc in this part of the forest, and it was 
indeed a piteous sight to behold the giants of the wood laid prone 
in the dust in the full vigour of their maturity. Nevertheless, 
a regular crop of splendid trees are still covering the hill. 
Towards the end of the last century this hill was the scene of a 
great forest-fire, which consumed the larger part of the vegetation, 
and even after so great a lapse of time evidences of it still exists, 
the ground being covered with a thin layer of burnt earth and 
charcoal. One striking feature here, in connection with the 
undergrowth of juniper, was its great height, and generally 
bearing a heavy crop of berries. Although all over the district 
this is the prevailing undergrowth, it attains its greatest stature 
on Torehill, and some of the tree-like bushes were found to 
measure fully 20 feet in height. From the summit a wide and 
beautiful prospect of the strath lying towards the north was 
obtained. Castle Grant, the chief seat of the Countess Dowager 
of Seafield in Strathspey, was seen rising above the woodlands 
away in the far distance; while nearer at hand, a bird’s-eye 
view was had of the extensive plantations of Abernethy, Duthil, 
and Cromdale. Owing to the commanding position of this point, 
it was selected in 1858 as the site for a huge bonfire in honour of 
the seventh Earl of Seafield when the title of Baron Strathspey was 
conferred upon him. On the way down, a magnificent Scots 
pine, in shape curiously similar to the Prince of Wales’ feather, 
attracted much attention; while another Scots pine, towering to a 
height of 70 feet, measured 9 feet 7 inches in circumference at 
5 feet up. 
In the Duack valley the carriages were resumed, and the 
woods on Lyngarrie banks were driven through. This district 
was also during last century the scene of a great forest-fire, when 
in 1746 two and a half million trees were destroyed. <A little 
farther east, a similar conflagration broke out in 1770, when the 
“fiery cross” was sent through Glen Urquhart to summon the 
clansmen to quench the fire. This is believed to be the last 
occasion on which the fiery cross was used in Scotland. WNot- 
withstanding these extensive devastations, however, a large 
number of huge old trees yet remain, and the various instruments 
. 
