208 
EXTRACTS FROM HIS WORKS [ch. vii. 
in darkness. There is now no sound but the 
sighing of the breeze ; and as we descend over the 
long smooth declivity, clad with thick heather, we 
pause not to listen to the hum of distant waterfalls, 
or the shriek of the white owl, for no torrents rush 
over these moors, nor ruined towers rise on the 
brown hills, where the gor-cock (Lagopus scoticus), 
escaped from the gun of the unpitying sportsman, 
crouches with the remnant of his family. Natural 
History of Deeside, pp. 207, 208. 
32.— Three Pine Trees. 
* 
Three stunted trees among rubbish have a most 
singular effect. One can hardly believe his eyes 
when they tell him they are pines. How came 
they there 1 What is their purpose? Why are 
there not more of them ? How old are they ? 
Very easy it is to ask questions which nobody can 
answer. A fourth tree has grown there also, but 
it lies overthrown, unbarked, and rotting. Their 
bent and rugged trunks indicate poverty and old 
age. Many storms of wind and rain have burst 
upon them; the sun has blazed fiercely upon their 
tufted foliage, and the parched crags have sent 
back his rays upon their spreading branches. The 
snows of winter have pressed them down, and the 
sapless soil has refused them nourishment in 
summer; their kindred have perished one by one; 
the last of their brethren lies prostrate beside 
