In PERTHSHIRE. 243 
Tue facts which have now been defcribed will perhaps be 
found, upon examination, to point out the caufe by which thefe 
trees were brought into their prefent fituation, and alfo the 
time when that event muft have taken place. 
For, firft, thefe faéts are utterly inconfiftent with the fuppo- 
fition that the trees have fallen through natural decay ; as in that 
cafe, they muft have been broken over at different heights above 
the furface, and both the trunks and the roots muft have been 
too far advanced in putrefaction, before the mofs was formed 
over them, for any part of them to remain found at this 
day. 
Tue fame circumftances feem alfo irreconcileable with the. 
fuppofition, that thefe forefts have been blown down by the 
wind, as in that cafe alfo the trees muft have been broken over at 
different heights, and muft frequently have been torn up by 
the roots; a fingle inftance of either of which has not been 
feen by the author of thefe remarks. It is indeed faid, that a 
few fingle roots, in different parts of the mofs, have been ob- 
ferved, which feem to be torn up, and what is perhaps difficult 
_ to be explained, no trunk was found attached to them. 
Ir cannot be admitted as an argument in fupport of the pre- 
ceding fuppofition, that the trees lie moft frequently in the di- 
rection from fouth-weft to north-eaft. For as the fouth- weft 
wind is the prevailing and moft violent wind in this country, 
the weight of the tops of the trees is generally turned from 
that quarter ; and by whatever caufe they fall, they will there- _ 
fore, in general, be direCted towatds the north-eatt. 
TuE moft plaufible folution therefore is, that the trees have 
been cut down, The height of the ftumps, which is common- 
ly about two feet and a half, favours this opinion, as, at that 
height, the diameter of a large tree is ufually much lefs than it 
is nearer the ground, and as the cutter can better apply his 
Vou, III. Mm ftrength 
