-°>70 MR J. GEIKIE ON THE BURIED FORESTS 



if Solinus may be trusted, the Orcades were, in the days of the Romans, bare 

 and bleak as they have been ever since. He says, " Numero tres, vacant homine, 

 non habent silvas, tantum junceis herbis inhorrescunt, csetera earum nudae 

 arenae et rapes tenent." A patriotic Orcadian might insist that the statement 

 "numero tres" renders what follows untrustworthy; and perhaps he might 

 prefer the testimony of Ossian, who, in his poem of Carric-thura, says of 

 some island in the group, " a rock bends along the coast with all its echoing 

 wood." According to Torfaeus (historiographer to the King of Denmark),* the 

 condition of the Orcades in the year 890 agreed with the description given 

 by Solinus. f For at that time Einar conferred a great boon upon his country- 

 men by teaching them the use of peat for fuel, enim in Orcadibus non erant 

 sylvce. Yet it is well known that the peat mosses of the Orkneys, and even 

 those of Zetland, contain the remains of considerable trees. 



The limits of this communication will not permit me to consider in detail 

 accounts of the condition of the Scottish forests in times subsequent to the Roman 

 period. Any reference by the chroniclers to the state of our woodlands is only 

 incidental, and perhaps not always to be relied upon. It is interesting, however, 

 to learn from Boethitjs, that the horrida Sylva Caledonia? had in his time become 

 mere matter of history. J He further tells us, that Fifeshire had formerly been 

 well wooded (in the times of some of his early Scottish kings) ; but " it is now," 

 says his old translator, " bair of woddis ; for the thevis were sometime sa fre- 

 quent in the samin that they micht na way be dantit, quhill the woddis war bet 

 down."§ Again, Boethius describes the island of Isla (whose peat mosses con- 

 tain roots and trunks of trees) to be an island rich in metals, which could not be 

 wrought on account of the want of wood. [J 



After the period to which Boece refers, any allusions to the aspect of the 

 country are best sought for in cartularies and such records. For the rights 

 acquired by monasteries over various forests throughout the country, these car- 

 tularies afford abundant evidence. Chalmers^" has enumerated many instances 

 of special grants by kings and barons " of particular forests in pasturage and 

 panage, and for cutting wood for building, burning, and all other purposes ;" and 

 Mr Tytler** has added to the list. It need hardly be remarked, that the greater 

 part of these woodlands has long disappeared. And yet, according to Chalmers, 



* Torfaeus wrote about 1690. He was a native of Iceland, and died in 1720. 



f Solinus is supposed to have written about a.d. 240. 



J If this had not been the case, he would surely have quoted a less ancient authority than 

 Ptolemy for the site of the ancient forest. Vide Cosmographie and Description of Albion. 



§ Croniklis of Scotland, chap. xi. 



|| Bellenden's version of the passage is characteristic. He says, Isla is " full of metallis, gif 

 thair wer ony crafty and industrius peple to win the samin ;" but he quietly drops all allusion to the 

 want of wood in the island. 



Tf Caledonia, vol. i. p. 792, &c. 



** Hist, of Scot. vol. ii. chap, ii., third edition, and the authorities there quoted and referred to. 



