and the Forest of Braemar. 67 



and we were compelled, with difficulty, to return, and ride six 

 miles higher up to the Bridge of Spey. This part of Badenoch 

 is bleak, with little wood, and that stunted birch. Lower down, 

 you enter the woods of Invereishie and Rothiemurchus, which 

 are of the Pinus sylvestris, or native pine. Nothing can exceed 

 their beauty, measuring, in some instance, 17 ft. and 18 ft. in cir- 

 cumference, and the wood equal in cleanness to foreign. Great 

 part of the Rothiemurchus woods have been cut, and floated 

 down the Spey. As much as l^jOOO/. for wood, we were told, 

 had been realised in a single year, while the ground rental of 

 the estate rose not much above 1000/. We visited Kinrara, the 

 wild and favourite residence of the celebrated Jane Duchess of 

 Gordon; also the Donne of Rothiemurchus, the shooting box 

 of the Duke of Bedford. From Avicenara we struck over, by 

 Rothiemurchus, Cairngorm, and Ben Mac-dhui (the highest 

 land in Britain by the last survey), to the head of the Dee; and 

 we launched (in the middle of July) into a field of snow on the 

 top of the pass, taking a copious th'aught of iced water flowing 

 from 



"Those rills which nurse the source of infant Dee." 



The scenery here is as wild as any part of the Alps I had ever 

 seen, and put me much in mind of les Aiguilles in the Valley of 

 Charaouni. We had, within two days, seen the sources of three 

 of the finest rivers in Scotland ; viz. the Tay, the Spey, and the 

 Dee, and all rising within a circuit of twenty miles. We then 

 descended the deer forest of Braemar, the upper part of which 

 is, in a manner, destitute of vegetation ; rocks rising in the most 

 precipitous manner, and all primitive granite, porphyry, and 

 gneiss. 



Shortly after passing one of Lord Caermarthen's keepers' 

 lodges (who has taken the forest, and pays nearly 3000/. of 

 rent), we entered the woods, which are entirely of Pinus sylves- 

 tris, and some finer than those of Rothiemurchus. One must 

 come here to see the Scotch pine in its native grandeur. The 

 average dimensions were as much as our guide and myself (both 

 6 ft. high) could span with arms joined. The clean vermilion 

 colour of the bark, and darkness of the foliage, showed -that this 

 spot was their native soil. It was with regret that we saw, in 

 many parts, the sawpit in full operation. The lower part of the 

 trunk only is taken, and the rest left to rot on the ground, the 

 Dee not being deep enough to float down wood. 



The soil this forest grows upon is a light gravel : wherever 

 the moss exists is without wood. It is about twenty miles long, 

 and stocked wholly with from 7000 to 8000 red deer, no sheep 

 or cattle being allowed to pasture in it. It is admirably adapted 

 for a deer forest : the upper part, being entirely bare of wood, 



F 2 



