196 REPORT ON A VISIT TO SCOTTISH AND ENGLISH FORESTS. 
XIII. Report on a Visit in September 1881 to the Scottish and 
English Forests by Professors and Students from the 
Forest School, Nancy, France. By M. Bore, Inspector of 
French Forests.! 
The total area of Scotland is about 20,000,000 acres, hardly one 
quarter of which may be reckoned as arable, forest, or pasture land, 
the remainder being occupied by lakes, rivers, peat-mosses, moor- 
lands, bare rocks, and mountains. It is surprising, then, to find 
that against such a vast area of uncultivated ground only 734,490 
acres, according to the official returns of 1872, are classed as 
woodlands. 
There is every reason to suppose that, at a remote period, both 
the Highlands and Lowlands of Scotland were covered by dense 
forests, which were successfully destroyed by the fire and steel of 
conquerors and during the anarchy existing under the old feudal 
system, as well as by the fearful storms which at almost regular 
intervals sweep over certain districts. So complete, indeed, was 
this devastation, that, in 1707, all that remained of the grand old 
Caledonian forests were a few shreds, and those in a most deplorable 
condition. 
From the union of the two kingdoms dates a period of political 
calm, during which, time and the marvellous timber-producing pro- 
perties of the soil and climate would have done much to repair the 
ruin, had not the sheep, arch-enemy of all forest vegetation, been 
allowed to retain his footing in the forests. 
The noblemen and great landed proprietors of Scotland at last 
felt the necessity of doing something to restore the parks and 
woodlands in the immediate vicinity of their mansions, and by the 
introduction of plantations to vary the sombre monotony of the 
boundless heather. It was also necessary on these bare moors, 
where grazing and shooting form the main sources of revenue, to 
furnish shelter for the cattle, sheep, and deer. Their example was 
soon followed by the smaller proprietors, and, under the wise 
patronage of the “Select Society” of Edinburgh, founded in 1754, 
the area of forest land augmented rapidly, so that in 1812 Scotland 
1 This Report has been, by inadvertence, omitted from the Zansactions 
till this date; but being of special importance at the present time the 
Council have agreed to insert it. 
