SCOTCH FIR. 339 



another, mantling the broken sides of near declivities, be- 

 yond which extended a lofty range of densely- wooded hills, 

 pine-clad, and dimly seen in the far distance. The lakes 

 and mountains still remain in their wildness and sublimity ; 

 but the forests are laid low, they no longer awaken thoughts 

 of poetry or romance. 



Alas for those once noble forests, containing both old 

 and young and middle-aged trees, beloved of poets, and 

 associated with the most stirring periods of Scottish 

 history ! Nought remains to point out their aged sites, 

 except vast denuded tracts, with here and there gigantic 

 skeletons of old trees, standing alone, or with two or three 

 companions, firm to look upon, though unfit for timber, 

 some few stripped of their bark by winds and frosts, others 

 leafless ; others, again, covered with a species of pale 

 bluish-grey lichen, which imparts a kind of unearthly 

 hue to their trunks and branches, while, stretching forth 

 their bare arms towards heaven, they seem propitiating 

 some threatening storm to spare them from utter ruin. 



z 2 



