THE PINE. 



459 



but there can be little doubt that upon the 

 uplands the pine was once as general as it now 

 is in the back settlements of Upper Canada. Of 

 these forests many vestiges still remain. The 

 fragment which lies farthest to the south-west, 

 is that of Rannoch, on the confines of the shires 

 of Perth, Inverness, and Argyle. The greater 

 part of that forest has, however, been felled, and 

 the timber was floated down the Tunimel and 

 the Tay, for a distance of at least sixty miles to 

 Perth, from Rannoch. The roots that remain 

 bleaching on the surface, and the occasional trees 

 that are still found in sheltered situations, or in 

 situations which are not accessible, afford evi- 

 dence that the forest once extended eastward 

 not only to the remaining woods of Mar, at the 

 sources of the Dee and the Don, in the west part 

 of Aberdeenshire, but to the shore of the sea 

 along that bleak ridge in the northern part of 

 the county of Mearns, which forms the southern 

 boundary of the valley of the Dec, and in the 

 very extensive peat moss, upon which pine is 

 the submerged timber almost exclusively found. 

 Further to the north, the pine forest appears 

 once to have reached much nearer to the sea; 

 though in the lowlands of the shires of Aberdeen 

 and Moray, the chief evidence of it now is in 

 the peat mosses or bogs : in these, however, it is 

 abundant — so much so, that it forms an article 

 of commerce, not onlj' in the villages near which 

 it is found, but in the city of Aberdeen. The 

 sapwood is altogether gone; and, indeed, the 

 ])rincipal remains are roots; but they contain a 

 vast quantity of resin and turpentine : this ren- 

 ders them much superior to any other wood for 

 kindling fires; and in the country districts slips 

 of them are used as a substitute for candles. 



Along the shores of the Moray Firth, no 

 remains of the forest are found above ground, 

 on the slopes of the mountains that are nearest 

 to the sea; but at what may be considered as the 

 highest summit of the Grampians, amidst the 

 immense mountains of Cairngorm, Brae Riach, 

 and Ben-mhuic-dhu, there are very extensive 

 forests in the glens or valleys of the rivers that 

 flow northward to tlie Spey. The estate of 

 Rothiemurchus, in that part of Scotland, con- 

 sists almost exclusively of natural piue forests. 

 In places where it can be removed, the timber of 

 tliis forest is of great value, and forms the chief 

 revenue of the proprietor of the estate. The 

 surface has, generally speaking, a northern aspect; 

 and, in consequence of the very high mountains 

 which lie to the south, with at least some part 

 of their summits covered with perpetual snow, 

 the climate is very cold, so that the pine of 

 Rothiemurchus is full of turpentine, and is of 

 excellent quality. A considerable portion of 

 the pine which is in the most accessible places 

 has been cut down; but, differing from many 

 other parts of Scotland, a succession sjirings up, 



and that forest appears to have still the power 

 of continuing itself^ and is, perhaps, the only 

 pine forest in the island which has that power. 



The Rothiemurchus pine is generally floated 

 down the river Spey; and when it is once brought 

 to that river, the passage of a raft is a matter of 

 little difficulty at any season. In times of drought 

 there is, however, a good deal of difficulty iu 

 getting the timber to the Spey; and, in order to 

 accomplish that object, the workmen collect the 

 trees in the dell, or den, build up a temporary 

 dam, and wait the coming of a flood, which, in 

 a country of so varied surface, is of frequent 

 occuiTence. When the flood comes, and the 

 temporary dam is full of water, they break down 

 the dyke, and away go the whole contents, 

 thundering down to the Spey.* 



On the hills to the northward of the Spey, 

 and just opposite to Rothiemurchus, there is a 

 good deal of timber on the banks of theDulnan; 

 but in that part of the country the forest is 

 decreasing. The timber there, however, is of 

 good quality, though, perhaps, not altogether 

 equal to that of Rothiemurchus, 



The principal rivers by which timber is floated 

 to the sea from the remains of the S^lva Cale- 

 donice, or Great Scottish Forest, beside the Tay 

 and Spey, as has been mentioned, and the Dee, 

 by which the timber of Mar is floated to Aber- 

 deen, are the Ness and the Beauly, both in Inver- 

 ness-shire. The pines on the Kess are to a con- 

 siderable extent exhausted; and the trees that 

 are now found in the remote places are, when 

 cut, thrown into the small rivers, and float to 

 Loch Ness. On the Beauly the forests are more 

 extensive; and there are regular saw mills about 

 midway between the forest and the sea, at which 

 the trees are cut into scantlings. To the mills 

 the trees float down the river; and at one place 

 they have to descend a cascade of at least forty 

 feet in height. This they sometimes do with 

 so much violence, that they are split to threads. 

 In that place, too, they have recourse to an arti- 

 ficial dam; but the dam is made of the trees 

 themselves, which are left in a heap till the 

 swelling of the river carries them away. Pines 

 have not been found in Scotland at an elevation 

 of more than 1500 or 2000 feet; and at even less 

 than that, they are very stunted, if not sheltered 

 in the ravines. 



The immense Scandinavian forest, which occu- 

 pies the slopes of the mountains, and banks of 

 the rivers and arms of the sea, in all the central 

 parts of Sweden and Norway, is one of the most 

 considerable on the Continent. This forest con- 

 sists for the most part of Scotch fir and spruce, 

 the former yielding red or yellow deal, and the 

 lat*er white. In very many places, both on the 

 Swedish and the Norwegian side of the moun- 



* Library of Entertaining KnowIod;jo. 



