The History of the Scottish Peat Mosses. 1& 



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5th Novembet, 1909. 



Chairman — Mr R. Service, Hon. V.P. 



The History of the Scottish Peat Mosses. By Professor 

 F. J. Lewis, M.Sc, F.L.S., Lecturer in Geographical 



Botany, Liverpool University. 



Dr Lewis's remarks were chiefly confined to the peat mosses 

 of Shetland, with a general reference to the stratified fossils in 

 other parts of Scotland. Successive strata were laid one upon 

 another just like the leaves of a book, from which they could 

 reconstruct the events of past ages. After the ice sheet had 

 disappeared there came a mantle of two or three inches of peat, 

 and then there was a definite stratum of forest. By means of 

 the limelight views the lecturer showed many different sections f)f 

 peat mosses, and expressed the opinion that owing to atmospheric 

 and artificial changes the peat was undergoing a process of 

 gradual denudation, and it was only a question of time till the 

 whole country would again be laid bare. Mr Scott-Elliot asked 

 whether Professor Lewis thought the peat-covered hills in the 

 Moffat and Galloway districts were doomed to remain covered 

 by peat, or whether it would be possible to again grow Scotch 



