3 2 4 THE DESTRUCTION OF THE FOREST 



"ACTS OF GOD" 



Nature's catastrophes, fire and wind, have shared in 

 dooming' the forest. A first thought suggests that the 

 manifestations of elemental Nature should have no place in 

 this account of man's influence ; but a second thought will 

 show that the greater part of their significance as destroyers, 

 is due to his interference with the old rule. Man cuts the 

 trees that act as buttresses upon the margin of the wood, 

 and, laying bare to the fury of the blasts the unaccustomed 

 growth within, opens a path for such a levelling of forest 

 as Nature never dreamed of. As I write Scottish newspapers 

 report the great damage done to growing timber by a gale 

 which raged throughout the night of October 24th, 1917 ; 

 and several correspondents mention that the damage was 

 intensified by the fact that the woods had recently been 

 cleared of their spruce and fir trees. 



To man's invention of fire, many a conflagration is to be 

 traced, but even where Nature's lightning is the spark that 

 kindles, it is man's influence which makes of the charred 

 tract a permanent desolation. One of the greatest forest 

 fires on record was that of Mirarnichi in North America 

 in 1825, when six thousand square miles of vegetation, 

 chiefly woodland, were utterly consumed. Nevertheless 

 left to herself, Nature speedily repaired the destruction ; 

 for in twenty-five years the blackened ground was covered 

 with a natural and dense growth of trees of fair size, except 

 where cultivation and pasturage kept down the forest growth. 

 In a small area like Scotland where cultivation and pasturage 

 are all but universal, no opportunity is left for Nature's gentle 

 restoration. 



There are evidences that both wind and fire have in 

 former days played havoc with Scottish forests. A single 

 example will illustrate the efficiency of each. In the parish 

 of Coldstone in Aberdeenshire, there was discovered many 

 years ago, buried in the peat, a pine forest which showed 

 all the signs of having fallen before a hurricane. In describ- 

 ing this forest in the second volume of the Edinburgh 

 Journal of Geographical and Natural Science, the Rev. J. 

 Farquharson says that the trees were found buried ten to 

 twelve feet deep in a moss which covered an area of about 



