REPORT ON A VISIT'TO SCOTTISH AND ENGLISH FORESTS. 199 
problem for British economists, and a vast field for enterprise and 
capital. 
Highland Forests.—In the Highlands, to which we principally 
directed our attention, the districts around Perth, Elgin, and 
Inverness are those in which the most extensive forests are to be 
found. These three counties together contain about 247,700 acres 
of forest, and being well served by the Highland Railway system, 
these are easier to visit than any of the other Scotch forests. 
Starting from Perth, we made our way across the Highlands, 
visiting en route the towns of Dunkeld, Blair Athole, Aviemore, 
Grantown, Forres, Inverness, and Beauly. We were thus enabled 
not only to make an inspection of some of the finest forests in 
Scotland, but at the same time to obtain a fair idea of the general 
aspect of the country. The punctuality and precision, so thoroughly 
characteristic of Englishmen, with which all the details of our 
journey were arranged by Colonel Pearson, added to the hearty 
reception we met with at every turn, enabled us, in the short time 
at our disposal, to thoroughly inspect more than 100,000 acres of 
every description of forest, under ever-varying physical and geological 
conditions. Everywhere, both at a few feet above the sea-level and 
on the sides of mountains at a height of 2500 feet, in the sands of 
Forres, and in the schists, red sandstones, granites, and gneiss of 
the interior, we were struck by the wonderful aptitude of the soil to 
forest vegetation, favoured as it is by a regular climate and the 
constant humidity of the atmosphere. 
In the low-lying districts, at an altitude of from 250 to 300 feet, 
we found growing, both singly along the roadside and collectively 
in the forests, magnificent specimens of oak, maple, elm, ash, beech, 
and lime, which, by the vigour of their growth and the rich 
colouring of their foliage, bore testimony to the favourable con- 
ditions of soil and climate under which they grew. We were 
struck with admiration in beholding the colossal trees of every 
description forming the avenues at Scone, Dunkeld, Blair Athole, 
and Darnaway. It was near the first of these places that the 
venerable father of Scottish forestry, Mr M‘Corquodale, showed us, 
with legitimate pride, a small oak forest of about 400 acres, which, 
60 years before, he had himself assisted to plant.!. In this forest 
1 Mr M‘Corquodale corrected this statement in the Journal of Forestry, 
Vol. VI., p. 60, 1883; and said that the error had crept in because the 
interpreter had not translated his remarks correctly. The plantation was 
formed in 1808, and was therefore 73 years old. 
