17 
and vegetation of any kind scarcely existed upon it.’ ‘ To endeavor to grow ship 
timber/ writes the Duke, ‘ among rocks and fragments of schist such as I have de- 
scribed, would have appeared to a stranger extreme folly, and money thrown 
away; but in the year 1800 I had for more than twenty-five years so watched and 
admired the hardihood and the strong vegetative powers of the Larch, in many sit- 
uations as barren and rugged as any part of this range, though not so elevated, as 
quite satisfied me that I ought, having so fair an opportunity, to seize it.’ 
These, with four hundred acres more, occupied from 1800 to 1815- ‘ Having now 
no doubt whatever of the successful growth of the Larch in very elevated situations, 
the Duke still further pursued his object of covering all his mountainous regions 
with that valuable wood. Accordingly, a space to the northward of the one last 
WEEPING MOUNTAIN ASH. 
described, containing two thousand nine hundred and fifty-nine Scotch acres, was 
immediately inclosed and planted entirely with Larch. This tract, lying generally 
above the region of broom, furze, juniper, and long heath, required no artificial clear- 
ing. An improved mode of planting was employed here, and that of using young 
plants only, two or th^ee years’ seedlings put in the ground by means of an instru- 
ment invented by the Duke, instead of the common spade.’ In 1824, the growth of 
the Larch in this last tract, called ‘ Loch Ordie Forest,’ having greatly exceeded 
the sanguine hopes and expectations of the Duke, he determiiied on adding to it an 
extensive adjoining tract, consisting of two thousand two hundred and thirty-one 
