<56 Thomas Brown, Esq. on a great Oak Tree 



tic herbaceous plants and shrubs. The moss could not have 

 existed at the time of the fall, for if this had been the case, the 

 tree could not have sunk into it so completely as to have been 

 preserved even with its bark. The part of the tree covered 

 with the deeper water, and afterwards with the moss, was quite 

 entire ; but at the sloping edge of the lake, where the covering 

 was less complete, the trunk was more or less decayed, till on 

 the dry land no traces of it could be seen. 



In the centre of the moss there were numerous trunks and 

 branches of birch, but although I sought with care, I could 

 not discover any appearance of oak. This was entirely con- 

 fined to the margin. The birch, most likely, had grown long 

 after the fall of the oak, on the moist mossy soil which had co^ 

 vered it, and had, along with various shrubs and herbaceous 

 plants, at last filled up the cavity of the lake. 



We may conclude, also, that this tree grew surrounded by 

 others, or in a wood, since we never see an oak, or, indeed, any 

 forest tree, attain a great height when it is solitary. The old 

 oaks at Chatleherault, near Hamilton, are of great girth, but, 

 from being in some respects solitary, their stems are short when 

 compared with the one found at Barhill. Their trunks do not 

 exceed from 12 to 18 feet in length, whereas the other was near 

 50. Most likely a wood covered the dry rising grounds which 

 surround this swamp ; and my impression is, that this tree could 

 not have grown quite close to the water, which, at one time, 

 filled the lake, but at some little distance. If this view be cor- 

 rect, the tree must have originally been of greater height than 

 we found it. 



As the entire part of the tree was covered with bark, it proves 

 that it must have fallen before it had been long dead. The 

 hollow in the centre had certainly existed long before it fell 

 down, and, as this extended to the top of the stem, it proves 

 that the tree must have been in a ruinous state, though alive, 

 when it fell. 



The situation in which this oak was found is elevated up- 

 wards of 500 feet above the level of the sea. I have ascertained 

 this by actual measurement of a part of the height, and by cal- 

 culation of the remainder. There are other trunks of oaks of large 

 ^ize found in a moss about two miles from this, nearer the source 



