192 MEMORIAL TRIBUTE 



them ? How old are they ? Very easy it is to ask 

 questions which nobody can answer. A fourth tree 

 has grown there also, but it lies overthrown, unbarked, 

 and rotting. Their bent and rugged trunks indicate 

 poverty and old age. Many storms of wind and rain 

 have burst upon them ; the sun has blazed fiercely 

 upon their tufted foliage, and the parched crags have 

 sent back his rays upon their spreading branches. 

 The snows of winter have pressed them down, and 

 the sapless soil has refused them nourishment in 

 summer ; their kindred have perished one by one ; the 

 last of their brethren lies prostrate beside them ; they 

 are the remnants of a once numerous and prosperous 

 race, and when they perish there will be no monument 

 but this passing notice to indicate that they once 

 were. Natural History of Deeside, p. 239. 



36. RAVENS POOR FELLOWS ! 



The path leads along the base of the furrowed and 

 stony declivities, which are of granite, coarse and 

 reddish, like that of the opposite side. All along this 

 passage it was very pleasant to hear the ravens, in 

 the crags of the opposite side, talking to each other 

 in a great variety of accents, one answering the call of 

 another. Poor fellows ! if the glen were mine I would 

 give strict orders not to molest them ; for, next to 

 the eagle, now altogether destroyed, the raven is the 

 greatest ornament of such a scene. They continued 



