346 



THE SCOTCH FIR OR PINE. 



stand singly, or in groups, or in groves, as Nature 

 may have planted them, or the deer may have 

 allowed them to rise, where distant herds are 

 seen maintaining their free right of pasture — - 

 where, on all sides, the steeps are clothed thick 

 with the portly denizens of the forest, and where 

 the view is bounded by a wider range of those 

 mountains of the Cairngorum group, which are 

 now ascertained to be the highest in Great Bri- 

 tain. And finally, being perhaps led by our way- 

 ward fancy to quit this scene, we climb the rough 

 sides of some isolated hill, vainly expecting that 

 the exertion of but a few minutes will carry us to 

 its summit, that we see rising above all its woods. 

 And we do reach it — but not until we are toil- 

 worn and breathless, after scrambling for an hour 

 up the slippery and deceitful ascent. Then what 

 a prospect opens to us, as we seat ourselves on 

 some bare rock ! The forest is seen stretching 

 away in all directions from our feet, mellowing as 

 it recedes into the farthest valleys amid the dis- 

 tant hills, climbing their bold sides, and scattering 

 off in detachments along their steeps, like the 

 light troops of some army skirmishing in the van ; 

 and, above all, the bold and determined outlines 

 of Benmachdhuie, that king of British mountains, 

 and his attendant group of native Alps, sharply, 

 yet softly delineated against the sky, look down 

 with silent majesty on all below." 



These mighty forests are indebted for their re- 

 newal to the membranous wings with which Pine- 

 seeds are furnished. By help of these the seeds 

 are carried to a great distance by the violent 

 winds to which mountainous tracts are liable, 

 and everywhere find^soil enough to supply their 



