IOO SCOTTISH FORESTS IN EARLY TIMES. 



roots still surviving in situ abundantly testify (Rev. Dr. A. Stewart). 1 

 Moniack Moss (in the Aird) is an extensive flat of cultivated 

 reclaimed land. In the moss many stumps and trunks of trees 

 (oaks) of great size were dug out, and may still be seen lying 

 about the edges of the fields. 2 Mr. J. Milne says, — " For many 

 years after the ditches were cut alongside both sides of the 

 Strichen road, which bounds the farm [of Curnichal] on the 

 north, large trunks of decayed oak trees could be seen pro- 

 jecting into them, both from below the road and also from the 

 fields on both sides. And, as the moss land has been reclaimed 

 away to the north, both in draining and ploughing, trunks of oak 

 trees have been come in contact with. And again when the 

 railway was made, trunks of trees were exposed, showing that a 

 wood of some size extended from Curnichal away northwards." 3 

 Perthshire abounds in testimony. 4 In Balquhidder large trunks 

 of birch, as well as oak trees, are occasionally found, evidently 

 belonging to a defunct forest; remains of the ancient forest of 

 Birnam have been found at different times ; in Ladywell Wood 

 the Duke of Athole's forester came across several noble oaks 

 embedded in the earth ; at Murthly remains of oaks, birch, hazel 

 and alder have been found in similar conditions ; Fortingall 

 (Glenmore) yielded a large crop of the roots of fir trees (remains 

 of the ancient forest of Schiehallion) which served as excellent 

 fuel, and when burning " emitted a light surpassing the brilliancy 

 of gas," and the trunks of oaks were also turned up here; shortly 

 before 1793, 40 large oak trees were found lying close together by 

 their roots in Kincardine Moss ; Blair Drummond Moss has also 

 yielded large oaks ; at the bottom of Flanders Moss, trees are 

 found lying prostrate, marked by the axe of those who felled them, 

 (probably the Romans,) as are also many of the fallen trees of 

 Kincardine and Blair Drummond Mosses ; on Tullibardine Muir, 

 4 or 5 feet underneath the moss, and at 600 to 700 feet above sea- 

 level the bole of a magnificent oak was discovered about 1879, 

 measuring 4 feet in diameter; and at Gorthy, trunks of birch and 

 oak have been obtained from time to time buried 6 feet under the 



moss. 



1 Trans. Inverness Scientific Socy., II., p. 25. 



2 Ibid, III., p. 120. 



3 Trans. Buchan Field Club, IV., p. 216. 



4 Hunter's Woods, Forests and Estates of Perthshire ; passim. 



