THE SCOTCH FIR OR PINE. 351 



T. D. Lauder, describing the same scene, says : — 

 *^ Many gigantic skeletons of trees, above twenty 

 feet in circumference, but which had been so far 

 decayed, at the time the forest was felled, as to be 

 unfit for timber, had been left standing, most of 

 them in prominent situations, their bark in a great 

 measure gone, — many of them without leaves, and 

 catching a pale unearthly -looking light upon their 

 grey trunks and bare arms, which were stretched 

 forth towards the sky like those of wizards, as if 

 in the act of conjuring up the storm which was 

 gathering in the bosom of the mountains, and 

 which was about to burst forth at their call/' 



Tradition favours the Pine's being considered a 

 native Forest Tree of England as well as of Scot- 

 land. Gerard says : I have scene these trees 

 growing in Cheshire, Staffordshire, and Lancashire, 

 where they grew in great plentie, as it is reported, 

 before Noah's floud, but, then being overflowed 

 and overwhelmed, have been since in the mosses 

 and waterie moorish grounds, very sound and 

 fresh untill this day ; and so full of a resinous 

 substance, that they burne like a torch or linke, 

 and the inhabitants of those countries do call it 

 Firre wood and Fire woode unto this day." 



Logs of Pine-wood intermixed with brick have 

 also been found embedded in the soil, and serving 

 as the foundation of an ancient Roman road. 

 Pine-woods are scarcely to be found in England 

 of so romantic a character as the Highland Forests ; 

 but some of the wilds of Wiltshire and other 

 English counties are covered with these trees, 

 self-sown and unpruned, and presenting on a less 

 grand scale many of the features described as 

 characteristic of the Scotch forests. 



