PHYSICAL FEATURES. 



57 



bears no acorns, or when they do in an exceptional season, an 

 acorn is not bigger than a pea, was held to be frivolous), that the 

 birch would supplant the fir, and oak would follow the birch — not 

 in our time but in the far future. [The barrenness of the oak 

 resulting from continuous emasculating by the cattle cropping the 

 twigs and coppice. — J. A. H.-B.] * The natural firs are, of course, 

 self-sown, and are of all ages and sizes. We take seedlings two 

 or three years old for either putting in our own nursery, or for 

 transplanting elsewhere, and I am frequently asked for some of 

 these self-sown firs. I sent some to Lord Aberdeen the other day 

 for a property in Vancouver,^ which he has purchased and called 

 Guisachan, i.e. The Firs.' 



We think the foregoing is most interesting and important. 

 The birches now are a feature in the strath, fine and large trees 

 they are, nearly all of that ' weeping ' character that seems to 

 come on only with age and size. 



Between Inver Cannich and Struy the strath is much less 

 wooded, and the trees lie mostly on the south side, the little wood 

 there is on the north side consisting principally of alder. Dog-roses 

 grow to a very great height here, climbing up through the other 

 trees, which give them support. Strath Glass, from Fasnakyle to 

 Eskadale, is a wide open valley, level and green in the bottom, the 

 river fiowing sluggishly through it. The hills which form the 

 sides are of no great height, nor are there any high hills 

 visible, except where the Farrar joins the Glass, from whence a 

 view is obtained of the lower end of Strath Farrar. 



Erchless Castle, the seat of the Chisholms, is not far from Struy, 

 the high road passing through the well-timbered and w^ell-kept 

 grounds, though the house itself is not visible from it. On the oppo- 

 site side of the river, and a little lower down, is Eskadale House, and 

 here, and as far down as Eilean Aigas, the river still keeps up its 

 open, broad, and sluggish character. At Eilean Aigas, as may be 

 inferred from the name, the river divides, forming the island, and 

 thereafter, when the two streams again unite, the river runs more 

 rapidly, the valley contracting into a narrow space called the 

 Druim, the sides in places rising straight up from the water, and 



1 (?) British Columbia. 



