IN THE HIGHLANDS 249 



Locheil, are as different in growth and constitution from 

 what are, alas ! too often sold nowadays as Scots firs 

 as Scots kale is from cauliflower. I have seen the 

 seedlings side by side in the seed-beds in my brother's 

 Gairloch nursery, and in the months of March and April 

 the seedlings from the bought seeds were of a rusty red, 

 as if scorched by fire, whereas the home-bred ones were 

 of a glossy dark green. 



For four or five years my poor peninsula looked 

 miserable, and all who had prophesied evil of it — and 

 they were many — said, " I told you so." But at last 

 from the drawing-room windows we could see some 

 bright green specks appearing above the heather. 

 These were the Austrians and the few home-bred Scots 

 firs which had been dotted about in the places of honour 

 near the house. About the fifth or sixth year everything 

 began to shoot ahead; even the little hard-wood trees, 

 which until then had grown downwards, started upwards, 

 many of them fresh from the root. Now came the real 

 pleasure of watching the fruit of all our labour and 

 anxiety. 



The young trees had fewer enemies then than they 

 would have nowadays. Grouse strutted about among 

 them, wondering what their moor was coming to, but 

 did no harm. Black game highly approved of the 

 improvements, and by carefully picking all the leading 

 buds out of the little Scots firs did their level best to 

 make them like the bushy Pinus montana. Brown 

 hares and blue hares cut some of the fat young shoots 

 of the Austrian pines and oaks; but, on the whole, my 

 young trees fared well in comparison with the way young 



