156 HARRIS. GENERAL DESCRIPTION. 



mountains of the Long Island. The proprietors would 

 fain believe that there are physical obstacles to its growth, 

 and thus conceal from themselves those moral causes the 

 contemplation of which is attended with self-accusation ; 

 like those who in adversity argue themselves into a 

 belief of fatalism to quiet the remonstrances of their own 

 reflections. There are no physical obstacles, or none 

 at least which Norway with a great similarity of feature, 

 exposure, and rocky substratum, accompanied by a more 

 severe climate, has not overcome.* Innumerable situa- 

 tions adapted to the growth of trees are to be found in 

 the sheltered valleys and on the lee sides of hills ; while 

 the islands so plentifully scattered along the coast are 

 calculated to remove the fundamental obstacle to planting, 

 namely, the expense of enclosure. One of the main diffi- 

 culties to be surmounted, is, in fact, the want of capital to 

 expend on improvements from which the returns are not 

 immediate, and the wants, real or imaginary, of the landed 

 proprietors, who are too often intent on procuring from 

 the soil the utmost immediate rent which it can be made 

 to afford. To these causes I may add the non-residence 

 of the proprietors, who can not be expected to interest 

 themselves in ornamenting those paternal seats from which 

 they derive no pleasure. Even among those who actually 

 reside, that indolence, so characteristic of the inferior 

 classes of Highlanders and from which the superior 

 are not wholly exempt, is a perpetual bar to improvements 

 of this nature. In a proportional degree, a Highland gen- 

 tleman is as little anxious to multiply his enjoyments as his 

 tenant, whose domestic animals dispute the fireside with 



* It is imagined that the oak will not grow to a large size but in a 

 good soil. Among many remains of oak forests in Scotland, there are 

 still remaining alive at the head of Loch Etive some trees from twenty to 

 twenty-five feet in circumference growing out of granite rubbish. In 

 such situations the growth is undoubtedly slow, but the dimensions do 

 not seem to be so limited as has been often supposed. 



