THE HIGHLANDS. 147 



feet in circumference, and from fixty to ninety feet 

 in height, without a collateral branch ; their age, 

 two centuries. A few have meafured fixteen feet. 

 Great numbers of fine trees, of twelve and thirteen 

 feet in girth, have yielded to age and dorms ; 

 others are fuccefiivtly falling to the ground. Of 

 fome trees thus blended with the foil, one end may 

 be cut into peats, the other fawed off and ufed as 

 good timber. The foreft which produces thefe 

 trees, lies at a diftance from the fource of the Dee, 

 where no art can bring them to the river. * 



Nor is it in natural woods only that the High- 

 lands excel. While the fturdy oak, and the hardy 

 pine, wave their branches over impending preci- 

 pices, deriving vigour and ftrength from the boifle- 

 rous elements of that climate, the vallies and nar- 

 row glens underneath give protection and fuftenance 

 to plantations of a more delicate quality. 



At Taymouth, the feat of the earl of Braedalbane, 

 there is a double row of ftraight lime trees, whofe 

 branches, at the height of eighty feet, unite fo 

 clofely, and with fuch regularity, as to form one 

 of the mod magnificent arches in the world. This 

 aftonifhing effort of nature affifted by art, is, how- 

 ever, lolt amidft extenfive plantations, containing 

 many millions of trees of various fpecics, and all in 



* Tiie river Dee runs above 70 miles due eaft, in a ftraight 

 line, from its fource to Aberdeen, where it falls into the lea, after 

 contributing its tribute of falmon to that city, and to L,- 

 Along its banks, and in its neighbourhood, there are many pleafmg 

 vallies, abounding in timber, and well inhabited. Gentlemen* 

 feats are alfo Riimerous, Deer and hare are fo plentiful, and de- 

 frnictivc to agriculture, that the tanners kill them at plcafure. 

 The people in general have a remarkable ; urn for induftry ; every 

 perfon, from cliildhood to the age of 80 or oo, is conlhntly erh'- 

 ployed in domeflic affairs; in fpinningyarn, or tutting ftockin 

 fale at Aberdeen, the capital of the north. Thole circunv/ 

 to fuggelt the utility of a market town towards the head of the Dec, 

 fimilar to the nun -.1 figuring, thriving towns of Huntley and Keith, 

 upon the banks of the De- 



K 2 the 



