278 ACCOUNT o PEAT-MOSSES 
refts, being at no great diftance from the above frontier, were 
cut down by the Romans for the purpofe of depriving the na- 
tives of the faftneffes and places of f{trength from which they 
were continually making incurfions into the province; and 
that from the trees thus cut down, and fuffered to rot upon 
thofe low and marfhy grounds, originated the vaft body of peat- 
mofs which covers them at the prefent time. The production 
of peat-mofs from the decay of forefts, is not a poflulatum that 
will be fuppofed fubject to any difficulty. It is a principle ad- 
mitted by naturalifts, on the ground of actual obfervation*, 
withsrefpeé at leaft to countries in high latitudes, and ferves 
to explain many appearances in other parts of this ifland, which 
have a great refemblance to thofe that have now been defcri- 
bed f. 
* See Lord Cromarry’s paper on Peat-mofs, Phil. Tranf. vol. xxvii. p. 296. 
+ See an Account of Hatfield Chace near Doncafter, Phil. Tranf. vol. xxii. p. 980. 
It may be proper to obferve, that the moffes of Kincardine, &c. being placed above 
the level of the adjacent plain, are of the kind that might be expected to break 
out and overfpread the lower grounds, which however they are not known to 
have done, while they remained in their natural ftate. They do not indeed abound 
very much in water, infomuch that the floating off of the peat, when it is carried to 
fuch an extent as it is now, requires an artificial fupply of water. This fupply is 
accordingly procured at prefent by an engine which Mr Drummonp has caufed to 
be ereéted for raifing water from the Teith, and which is one of the moft material 
improvements that has been made in the hufbandry of the mofs, 
Bur though there is no memory of the mofs having flowed while it remained 
jn its natural ftate, on the 21f{t March 1792, it burft out on the welt fide, near the 
fouthermoft cottage, to the height of its fide-wall, covering fifty-fix yards in 
breadth, and about the extent of an acre of ground that had been cleared, and 
-edrly in the morning of the fame day of 1793, (fince the firft communication of 
this paper), it was difcovered to have flowed again, and to have reached the 
northermoft cottage of the fame line of houfes. The inhabitants efcaped by a wih- 
dow on the oppofite fide of the houfe. The mofs afterwards bore down the fide- 
walls of the houfe that were built of ftone, and continued to flow fluwly forward, 
I eight 
ra acces, 
