ih PERTHSHIRE. 260 
covered with heath, but when examined more clofely, is found 
to be made up only of fmall tufts of heath, intermixed with 
mofs-plants, fuch as ling, cotton-grafs, and in one fpot with 
wild rofemary ; thefe tufts being feparated from each other by 
{paces of bog, which are quite foft, and have no plant whatever 
on their furface. 
WueENn laid open, this mofs is found to confift of an accumu- 
lation of the debris of the fame plants, which are more or lefs ad- 
vanced in putrefaction, according to the depth, and the degrees of 
humidity and compreflion. At the bottom of the mofs, or at the 
furface of the clay on which it refts, is a ftratum compofed chiefly 
of bits of rotten wood, but with which is mingled fometimes 
a little black earth, and fometimes alfo bunches of heath, far 
more entire than thofe which are found nearer to the furface of 
the mofs. Here alfo are innumerable trunks of trees, lying 
along clofe by their roots, which roots are {till fixed in the 
clay, as in their natural ftate. The roots of the heath are alfo 
fixed in the clay, and appear to have been the production of 
the foil before the mofs was fuperinduced over it. 
In the mofs of Kincardine, is a confiderable extent of what is 
called flow-mo/s, that is, flowing or fluid mofs, the furface of which 
is {mooth, and which, until lately drained, was fo faturated with 
the water that was confined in it, either by the great extent of 
mofs upon all fides, or by the greater height of fome of the ad- 
joining grounds, as to be almoft literally in the ftate which its 
name indicates. The other parts of the mofs have generally 
fuch a degree of folidity as fits them for being cut into peat, 
at leaft towards the bottom ; for in the upper parts the plants 
are too little advanced in putrefaction, and too little compref- 
fed, to have the cohefion requifite to be formed into peat. 
Tue methods ufed for improving thefe mofles have been 
various. Sometimes, after the mofs was fo far drained by the com- 
mon operation of making it into peat, as to bear cattle in dry 
weather, 
