114 FOEESTS, WOODS, AND TEEES 



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 



