136 Dr Murray oii the Natural History of Alford. 



ground is chiefly covered with heaths, plants bearing various kinds of .berries, 

 rein-deer moss, and different species of club-moss ; while its surface usually con- 

 sists of a thin peaty soil, and sometimes an impure clay. On the low and wet 

 grounds, the native products are chiefly different sorts of grasses, carices and 

 rushes ; and here we usually find an intermixture of peat or loam (both being 

 the product of vegetables that have decayed under different circumstances, 

 it is diflficult to tell where the one ends and the other begins), with a gravelly 

 or clayey subsoil, ^t a former period, probably all the land in the district 

 belonged to one or other of the above kinds ; but now a considerable part has 

 been long under cultivation, and the soil to some depth converted into vege- 

 table mould, the appearance and nature of which varies according to several 

 circumstances. I have omitted the peat mosses, but they are not extensive, 

 a few being found on the hills, and others on the wet and level plains. Traces 

 of ancient forests, usually of fir, though oaks have sometimes been found, are 

 met with in various places ; and perhaps originally a great proportion of the 

 lower ground was covered with natural wood. At present, most of the uncul- 

 tivated moors, as well as the eminences, when not of great height, are covered 

 with wood, planted for the most part within the last fifty years ; older trees, 

 chiefly hard wood, are to be seen near the mansions of landed proprietors. In 

 this district, no lake worthy of the least notice is to be found ; nor is there 

 any stream deserving to be mentioned, besides the river Don, which flows 

 through the valley. Emerging from a tract, where, during a long space it 

 had been almost encroached upon by the hills, it opens into Alford, and, after 

 pursuing a winding course for several miles, it leaves that valley, and is again 

 pressed close upon by the hills, as before. 



The appearance of former cultivation, as indicated by the crooked ridges 

 on rising grounds, not now subjected to the plough, may next be pointed 

 out. On this subject various opinions are entertained ; but there appears no 

 good reason for doubting that those high places were cultivated only when 

 the lower lands were, from wetness and the cover of wood, in an unfit 

 state ; and that, when a change was effected in the lower fields, the others 

 were thrown back to nature. Some remarks on the reasons which exist for 

 supposing that the valley of Alford was, at an early period, a lake, and on a 

 peculiar sand, with a metallic lustre,' that is found in the river, would not here 

 be out of place ; but not being prepared to enter on these subjects, 1 pass on 

 to an account of the rocks, though, with regard to them also, I have to regret 

 being unable to communicate a description so minute and complete as might 

 be desired. 



Geognosy of the Country. 

 Alford is, for the most part, composed of granite, of which the constituent 

 parts exist in every proportion, and in every form ; and, in fact, it would be 

 difficult to conceive quartz, felspar, and mica, combining together in a more 

 varied manner than is there to be met with. Every description of this rock 

 is to be found, from the granite, with its ingredients joined together in large 

 irregular concretions, to the small granular compact rock. The quartz, in 

 particular, has great variety of proportion and appearance. Besides the form 

 which it takes in the more common granites, it is met with, at one time, in 

 so large quantity, as to approach or pass into the common quartz-rock ; and, 



