"NEOLITHIC" MOSS REMAINS FROM FORT WILLIAM 109 



land (Ranunculus Lingua, R. repens, Pliragmites, Lychnis 

 Flos-cuculi, L. dturna, etc.), though Corylus and Oxalis would 

 postulate a woodland origin for part of them. I believe 

 that the only possible conclusion is that the bulk of the 

 moss-remains had a different origin from that of most of 

 the flowering plants ; and considering the unusually well-pre- 

 served condition of the former, and the badly preserved state 

 of the latter, it would appear that the phanerogams must 

 have been brought down from a greater distance, and that 

 the stream must have flowed through some upland meadow 

 valley before coming to its rocky woodland course. Or 

 perhaps more probably the stream or river by which they 

 were deposited was formed by the union of two streams, 

 one of which brought down the mosses, while the other, a 

 larger and more slowly flowing stream traversing an alluvial 

 meadow-land, brought the phanerogams. These conditions 

 would almost be fulfilled at the present time if only the 

 lower slopes of Ben Nevis on its northern or western side 

 were wooded, when either of the streams rising on that 

 mountain, and uniting and flowing into the Lochy at Lochy 

 Bridge, would well afford the supposed requirements. It is, 

 I think, out of the question that the moss-remains are 

 derived from a large area, or brought from any great dis- 

 tance ; in such a case they could hardly have presented the 

 homogeneous association that they actually exhibit, while 

 aquatic or paludal species could scarcely fail to have been 

 in stronger evidence. 



As regards the climatic conditions prevailing when this 

 plant association was growing, the general conclusion to be 

 drawn would be that they were very similar to those now 

 obtaining. The presence of Dicranum Scottianuin especially 

 has perhaps a particular interest, as probably indicating with 

 some certainty that, at least, no appreciably greater degree 

 of cold prevailed. The distribution of this species is notably 

 an Atlantic one ; it occurs in most of the groups of the 

 Atlantic Islands, in Brittany and Normandy and the Pyrenees, 

 in Denmark, and in Western Britain, but scarcely extends to 

 any extent eastwards in continental Europe. (Paris indeed 

 cites it as from Spitzbergen, but this must surely be a slip ; 

 it is not mentioned in Berggren's " Musci Spetsbergenses," or 



