49 
in 1598 by the second son of John Grant of Freuchie, but it has 
long been a roofless ruin, 
The carriages were now left, and the company proceeded on 
foot up the steep face of Curr Hill, to inspect the young natural 
wood, which covers about 250 acres of the hill with a fine crop 
of Scots pine and larch. About twenty-five years ago the ground 
carried a heavy crop of matured timber, when a commencement 
was made to cut it down for estate and other purposes. Accord- 
ing as the various portions were cleared of the old trees, the 
natural seedlings began to appear and soon occupied their place, — 
till now there is seen over the whole area a fine crop of larch and 
Scots pine, the latter predominating. The trees are of various 
sizes and ages; the oldest being about twenty years of age, and 
having an average height of about 15 feet. Naturally they form 
impenetrable thickets in spots favourable to the germination of 
the seeds, but these will be thinned and regulated in due course. 
In the whole wood there was very little space seen entirely bare 
of seedlings, except small patches of grass, among which the pine 
seeds will not germinate and grow, as-was observed on the first 
day of the Excursion in the forests on the other side of the Spey. 
The soil was of an open, tilly nature, and admirably suited for the 
growth of both larch and pine timber of the finest quality; the 
young crop being healthy and vigorous, and promising well for the 
future. The Members were greatly interested in this fine example 
of a self-reproduced wood, which afforded them an object-lesson 
worthy of their careful study, and much longer time would have 
been spent in it had the exigencies of the occasion permitted. 
The carriages were caught up again on emerging from the 
wood at Curr, and the Members getting quickly into their seats, 
the drive was continued past Broomhill Station, and across the 
Spey by a wooden bridge, which was being superseded by a new 
one alongside of it. The old bridge was constructed of native 
pine timber from Abernethy forest. It had stood for over thirty 
years without the wood having undergone any preserving process, 
and only the flooring and a few piles were now showing decay. 
The new bridge was being built of creosoted foreign timber, which 
was considered somewhat out of place in the midst of plenty of 
native timber close at hand, and of at least as durable qualities, 
Turning off to the left, Coulnakyle House and Model Farm, 
the pleasant summer residence of Charles B. Logan, Esq., W.S., 
commissioner to the Countess Dowager of Seafield, was seen on 
