best of those which I saw might measure 60 feet timber height by 18 inches quarter- girth or 135 cubic feet. In the best stocked areas the trees might average 120 per acre at 120 years old, of which forty trees of the first class would average perhaps 40 feet, forty second class 25 feet, and forty of the third class perhaps 12 feet each, or about 3000 feet to the acre. But these figures are only a rough estimate, as the King’s trees are not cut for sale, and in consequence Mr. Michie could not give me exact figures, but thinks they are worth from 6d. to 8d. per foot standing.
The Black Wood of Rannoch is an ancient natural pine wood extending for about three miles along the south shore of Loch Rannoch, and though there are no trees of exceptional size, there are many very picturesque ones, which are protected by the owner, B.C. Vernon-Wentworth, Esq., whose residence at Dell is near the east end of the wood. The largest which I measured was 91 feet by 11 feet 7 inches, with a very spreading base 15 feet 5 inches round at one foot from the ground. The greater part of the wood is open and covered with long heather, among which seedlings were fairly numerous wherever the soil was exposed. Many of the large trees were blown down thirteen years ago, and their timber, which was of very fine quality, was used by Sir J. Stirling Maxwell in the interior work of his house at Corrour.
There is an excellent account of the Black Wood of Rannoch and its history in chap. xxxiv. of that admirable book, Hunter’s Woods and Forests of Perthshire, which, though now getting out of date, as it was published in 1883, gives a better account of the great estates and their trees than exists for any other county in Great Britain. In this work dimensions are given of the finest trees then existing in the Black Wood, which are remarkable more for their great girth, spreading and massive branches, and picturesque appearance than for their height.
On the shores of Loch Hourn, on the west coast of Inverness-shire, there are many native pines scattered among the birches, but none of large size, a few of those near the sea resembling the stone pine of Italy in habit. Henry observed that many of these trees do not ripen seed.
With regard to the elevation at which the Scots pine grows in Scotland, we have various somewhat conflicting estimates. Mr. Michie tells me that Craig Doin (1900 feet) is about the highest level he knows it to reach in Ballochbuie. Mr. Seton P. Gordon, however, says* that he has seen a young Scots pine growing at a height of about 2700 feet not far from the source of the river Dee on the south slopes of Brae Riach, though he regards this as very exceptional. Mr. Hugh Boyd Watt * also considers 2700 feet quite an unusual altitude, and says, “From personal observations made on and around the Cairngorm mountains (and in no other district in this country do forest trees attain higher levels) I can say that even at 2000 feet above sea-level the Scots pine has difficulty in holding its ground. ... On the southern slopes of Beinn a’ Bhuird (Glen Quoich) considerable numbers of fairly well-grown Scots pines reach up from 2000 feet to 2100 feet, and I know no other place where what may be called the forest line is so high. . . . In other localities, apparently favourable to their growth, the pines do not in any numbers exceed an
? Country Life, 17th Aug. 1907, p. 245; 31st. Aug. 1907, p. 322.
2 Op. cit, 7th Sept. 1907, p. 359.
