132 A VERTEBKATE FAUNA OF THE MORAY BASIN. 



forests and the disappearance of certain forms of life, and again 

 at the resuscitation of the pine-woods by a superior and wiser 

 policy, corresponding changes in faunal life become constantly 

 and increasingly emphatic to our senses, and cannot be ignored. 



Besides the pine-woods of Strathspey, there is much very old 

 birch, especially around Loch Morlich and under the Cairngorms, 

 much of it dead and dying — rare nesting-ground for Crested Tits 

 and Kedstarts. By the margin of the lakes in some places very 

 ancient alders dot the meadows, or are seen far up the river 

 Nethy and other streams. Both birch and alder are usually 

 knotted and gnarled and twisted, and the former is mixed amongst 

 the oldest growths of pine. The healthier, clean-barked stems 

 of tall, straight birches along the opener straths and haughs of 

 Spey and Feshie we have already incidentally mentioned as most 

 noticeable around Aviemore and Kinrara and all along the haughs 

 of Spey, and on both sides of the railway. Old larch, i.e. perhaps 

 one hundred years old, cap many of the gravelly knolls and ridges, 

 and great blank spaces occur where they have been already cut 

 down for timber. Very old larch occurs here and there, both on 

 Spey and in the tributary valleys. 



The forests of Darnaway are mostly of younger generations 

 than the great pines around Loch Morlich, and evince the great 

 care and excellent forestry bestowed upon them by the late 

 Lord Moray, under the able superintendence of his factor, 

 Mr. Brown, and his predecessors. These woods, along with 

 those of Altyre, Culmoney, Glenferness, Brodie, etc., clothe 

 the lower valley of the Findhorn. They consist of far more 

 varied timber growths, the hard woods being numerous — beech, 

 ash, elm, oak, and birch, marvellously beautiful in their varied 

 foliage and tracery against the sky, lovely in their cleanness of 

 bark, and fine straight growth of limb and trunk — the perfection 

 of exquisite forestry and care. 



Of a general view of Glenmore and Eothiemurchus to the 

 south, say, from the dividing ridge between Aviemore and the 

 Sluggan or pass of Kincardine, the path towards the top of Cairn- 

 gorm is seen following a V-shaped bank A and then winds up 

 past a prominent and large stone on the sky-line. Cairngorm 



