4 The Scottish Naturalist. 



have been laid bare during the working of the clay. When we 

 visited the clay-pit, we saw several fragments of this drift-wood 

 which had been taken out from the very bottom of the clay. 

 One of the fragments (a mere stool) appeared to be rooted in 

 the sand-bed, but of this we could not be certain. It is quite 

 possible that it, too, may have been drifted, and the heavier end 

 sinking first, may have become buried in sand so as to simulate 

 the appearance of having grown in situ. Unfortunately, the 

 workmen had dug all round it, with the intention of taking it 

 out, so that we were not able to form any definite opinion upon 

 the subject. As showing the condition of these "trees," I may 

 mention that the workmen usually cut them up and take them 

 home for firewood. Those that we saw appeared to be all pine 

 — probably Scotch fir. 



I have no doubt that this peat-bed, with its accompanying 

 " trees," is the same as that which occurs in a similar position 

 under the silt and clay of the old alluvium of the river Earn,^ 

 and which is likewise conspicuous here and there on the same 

 horizon in the Carse of Cowrie. Of this ancient vegetable de- 

 posit I hope to give a detailed account elsewhere, and will there- 

 fore mention here only a few of the general results of my observa- 

 tions. The peat represents, I think, an old land-surface, clothed 

 with a kind of marshy vegetation, and resembling in almost every 

 particular those stretches of flat reed-covered ground that border 

 the Tay in the Carse of Cowrie. The remains of trees associated 

 with the peat, which are often extremely abundant, were pro- 

 bably in most cases drifted down tlie river, but here and there, 

 of course, it may well have been that the low banks themselves 

 supported an arborescent vegetation. 



The old canoe occurred on the same horizon as the drifted 

 trees at Friarton. It lay upon the peat and sand, and was buried 

 underneath the whole thickness of the overlying clay and silt. 

 The size of the tree out of which the canoe was fashioned is 

 quite in keeping with what we know of the buried trees in the val- 

 ley of the Earn, and the lower reaches of the Tay itself. Some of 

 these^ attained a size which none of our trees in those neighbour- 

 hoods can now rival. Mr Wood informed me that the canoe 

 was resting on its bottom when it was laid bare by his wprkmen. 



1 In this peat-bed, Dr Buchanan White and I detected some insect-remains, 

 which my friend has under examination. 



- The trees referred to nro often rooted in their old soil, showing that they 

 grew in sittt. 



