LETTER VII. . 67 



17. Add to the agency of the causes already speci- 

 fied, that of a thousand other destructive influences, 

 which come of the sundry and manifold changes of 

 the world ^' — frost, fire, hurricanes, lightning — the 

 necessities and caprices of man himself ; and a calcu- 

 lation of chances will put it beyond all doubt, that the 

 far greater number of all sorts of trees, perennial as 

 " the everlasting hills," as I maintain they naturally 

 are, must perish at no very remote period from their 

 origin ; and that ultimately, though at no definite time, 

 even the oldest and the greatest of them must disap- 

 pear from ofi* the face of the earth. — I am, &c. 



branches of the trees. The whole plantation will contrast remark- 

 ably with the Dunkeld Larches, — the reason of which, as of the 

 entire aspect of both, you have in the text. Such a plantation may 

 be compared to a vast marquee, the framework and supports con- 

 sisting of long wooden poles, the covering of green baze. 



