I24 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
beaches and on bottom lands. Thus, setting apart the question 
of forests, the West Highlands are fit for little else than pastoral 
industry.” 
In contradistinction to the Western Highlands, the author 
points out that on the east the drier and clearer atmosphere 
and the more extreme climate give rise to quite a different 
vegetation. He says of the Eastern Highlands :—“ Their 
vegetation is essentially one of heather and dry grass moors 
on the slopes, with extensive peat caps on the plateaux and 
terraces under 2500 feet, and alpine deserts on the broad higher 
summits. Here, indeed, are found ideal conditions for Scots 
pine and larch in the sub-alpine zone, and for mixed oak forests 
up to goo feet. After the wholesale disforestation, heather 
and peat soon got the better of the intended pasture, and ever 
since ling-burning has extended their power and limits.” 
Speaking of the North-west Highlands, Dr Hardie mentions 
that the West Sutherland district, running S.S.W. to Ben More, 
Assynt, has a high rainfall, but that the strength of the north 
and west gales would probably prevent the existence of forests. 
In summarising results on page 237, he points out that 
“the upper forest limit is determined entirely by wind. It is 
higher in the east than in the west, at the eastern than at the 
western exposure, in the south than in the north. Fairly 
constant at an altitude of from 1800 to 1g00 feet in the middle 
Highlands, it rapidly goes down to from 1400 to 1500 feet on 
the scattered and exposed mountains of Sutherland, eventually 
reaching a much lower level on the western slopes of the extreme 
north-west, which increases in width from south to north and 
from east to west. It is followed upwards by a pseudo-alpine 
belt of a few hundred feet in height. Whether this zone could 
not be partially reclaimed in course of time by modern scientific 
forestry is yet an open question.” 
To conclude, on page 238 a fact well known to foresters 
is mentioned, namely, that “‘bad management of a pine forest 
may result in a more or less permanent deterioration of the 
soil, and the substitution of heather or other waste moors for 
pine.” Farther on the author says, ‘‘ We may well question, for 
instance, whether, by reason of too early a separation of Scotland 
from Scandinavia, the sub-alpine zone of the Western Highlands 
has had the advantage of ecologically quite suitable forest-trees 
and associates, like the Norway spruce; or, again, whether there 
