114 FORESTS, WOODS, AND TREES 
Inverness and Argyllshire Highlands. The climate of 
the former may be considered continental and that of the 
latter oceanic ; but it is probably the exposure to the wind 
which makes the difference in the height of the tree-line, 
Dr. M. Hardie’s interesting remarks on this subject in 
Scottish Geographical Magazine, May 1906, are worth 
quoting in extenso at the risk of some repetition: “The 
upper forest limit is determined entirely by wind. It 
is higher in the east than in the west, at the eastern than 
at the western exposure, in the south than in the north. 
Fairly constant at an altitude of from 1800 to 1900 feet 
in the middle Highlands, it rapidly goes down to from 
1400 to 1500 feet on the scattered and exposed mountains 
of Sutherland, eventually reaching a much lower level on 
the western slopes of the extreme north-west, which in- 
creases in width from south to north and from east to west. 
It is followed upwards by a pseudo-alpine belt of a few 
hundred feet in height. Whether this zone could not be 
partially reclaimed in course of time by modern scientific 
forestry is yet an open question.” Speaking of the western 
Highlands, he continues: “In the west we have to deal 
with an essentially pastoral landscape. The whole of this 
section is, to a surprising degree, bare of forests, not from 
any natural cause, but through the agency of man. That 
this work of destruction has been made easier by the fact 
that in the sub-alpine zone a species of forest tree, 
thoroughly adapted to the climate, was lacking, is, however, 
very likely. For the excess of rainfall and wind is not 
favourable to Scots pine, the only native timber of import- 
ance for this zone, or to the larch, which has much the 
same ecologic requirements. Norway spruce, silver fir, 
and the Douglas fir would, under proper management, be 
best suited to these western hills.” 
Prof. W. Somerville, in Quarterly Journal of Forestry, 
vii. 144 (1913), mentions an area of several hundred acres 
of fine old Scots pine in the Highlands between 1000 and 
2000 feet altitude. He gives a photograph of well-grown 
trees at 1800 feet. Not a single young tree could be 
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