DISTRIBQTION OF CERTAIN FOREST TREES IN SCOTLAND. 99 



are found remains of a submarine forest. The barks of the 

 various kinds of trees are quite discernible, and even the 

 seeds of the birch and ash are so well preserved as to appear 

 but lately fallen from the tree." This is the most northern 

 record of the ash we have. In Inverness-shire, while making 

 excavations for the Caledonian Canal, numerous trees were 

 found, principally very large oak trees, some of which 

 measured 24 feet in circumference {Neio Statistical Account, 

 vol. xiv. p. 9). In the parish of Croy and Dalcross, in the 

 same county, it is recorded that there were extensive forests 

 of oak, birch, fir, and hazel, which had been converted into 

 moss, upwards of 20 feet deep. In a moss in this district, 

 400 feet above sea-level, oaks of extraordinary size have been 

 dug up, some of them measuring 50 or 60 feet in length, 

 and of proportional thickness. At a height of 800 feet, large 

 blocks of fir have also been found. In some of the peat-bogs 

 in Glenavon, BanlTshire, roots of pine have been found at a 

 height of 3000 feet above sea-level {Neiv Statistical Account, 

 vol. xiv. p. 449; Old Statistical Account, vol. xii. p. 451), 



Throughout the midlands there are abundant records. 

 Coming south to Renfrewshire, where we have now no natural 

 woods, remains of what seems to have been the forest men- 

 tioned in the Chartulary of Paisley Abbey have been found 

 in the parish of Kilbarchan {Old Statistical Account, vol. xv. 

 p. 484), where, in the mosses, oaks have been found in a perfectly 

 fresh condition, standing in their original position. 



From the ancient lake of Cowden Glen in Renfrewshire, 

 birch and hazel have been unearthed. This deposit has given 

 I'ise to much discussion, some being of the opinion that it 

 belongs to the inter-glacial period, while others believe, judging 

 from the discovery of plants of recent occurrence, that it should 

 be considered a post-glacial deposit. ^ 



The writer has examined the peat-bogs above Greenock 

 and at Bishoptown, but has only been successful in finding, in 

 the peat near Loch Thom, ac a height of upwai-ds of 500 feet, 

 the roots and trunks of birch trees. There is much diificulty 

 in making fresh discoveries ; the only way in which this can 

 be done successfully is by making extensive excavations in 



\} The deposit in question rested upon and was covered by glacial 

 accumulations, and there can be no doubt, therefore, that it is of inter-glacial 

 age.— Ed. S.G.M.] 



