OF THE MACKINTOSH ESTATE IN BTtAE LOCHABER. 237 



respiratory organs of the trees are thus impeded, and their whole 

 system gets deranged ; soon after this fresh shoots burst forth on 

 the bole and branches of the trees ; the original branches die, and 

 in the course of a year or two the trees succumb. The caterpillar 

 has many enemies ; the greatest is the jackdaw, which may be 

 seen in hundreds feeding xipon these voracious creatures. 



Hardiooods. — Growing in hedgerows, in clumps, and by the river- 

 courses. They are the ash, plane, elm, beech, lime, etc. ; of these 

 the most abundant is the ash, which is indigenous, and is found 

 mixed among the other trees, and frequently associated with the 

 alder by the river banks. The largest of these stands about 70 

 feet in height, with a girth of 1 1 feet at 5 feet from the ground. 

 There are so few of the other hardwood trees mentioned that I 

 need not describe these separately. The tallest I noticed attains 

 a height of about 80 feet. One plane-tree has a girth of 14 feet 

 at 5 feet from the ground. The girth of the others ranges from 

 5 to 9 feet at 5 feet from the ground, and are from 60 to 80 feet 

 in height. They are all on the lowest terrace, already desci'ibed, 

 and are healthy and growing well. 



Larch. — At Keppoch there are 124 very old and remarkable 

 trees of the red flowering variety. In the year 1753 Ranald 

 Macdonald, son of Alexander Macdonald of Keppoch, who fell at 

 Culloden, returning from the Continent after having finished his 

 education in France and Italy, brought the plants home with him 

 as two-year seedlings. They were planted about 6 feet apart 

 around the policies as hedgerows and in clumps, etc., at an eleva- 

 tion of from 10 to 30 feet above the rivers Roy and Spean, and 

 from 300 to 320 feet above the sea. They grow on the slopes of 

 one of the lowest terraces referred to, the surface soil being that 

 described in the first layer, and the subsoil a mixture of clay, 

 sand, and gravel to a considerable depth, resting on granitic rock. 

 They cover an area of about 8 acres. They have attained an 

 average height of about 90 feet, and contain on an average 152 

 cubic feet, or altogether 18,848 cubic feet of timber. To give a 

 better idea of these larches, I measured four of the largest and 

 give their dimensions in a table. 



No. 1 stands on an elevation of 10 feet and 15 feet from the 

 water's edge. The surface soil is dry, but the tree's roots are near 

 enough the water to receive sufficient moisture. The tree main- 

 tains its conical shape, but begins to appear slightly rounded at 

 the top. The branches on one side had been partially stripped 



