SCOTCH FIR. 323 



such is not unfrequently the wild sojourn of many among 

 my tribe. 



Grandly picturesque in our appointed habitats, and in 

 unison with rocks and torrents, who can pass us by 

 unnoticed? said the fir of Basilsleigh. Mine is a lonely 

 dwelling-place, far from any of my alpine brethren. I have 

 watched beside this deserted mansion, till grey lichens have 

 grown upon my branches, and made hoary my tall stem ; 

 yet still I watch, and the cross-bill would sorely lament for 

 me, if I were to fail. 



Would you, however, Stranger, wish to see my clan in 

 all its pride of numbers, go to the mountains of Invercauld 

 or Glenmour, which seem as if divided by innumerable firs, 

 presenting in their aggregate a oneness of shape and hue 

 which has no parallel among forest-trees. The scene is 

 indescribably solemn, and carries back the mind to those far- 

 off days when wide fir forests went onward in their might, 

 stooping into untrodden valleys and .ascending the rugged 

 sides of mountains, even to the verge of perpetual winter. 



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