Lakes have been more numerous, €&'c. 1t 
fince thofe from whom my information was received 
had no intereft in propagating a falfehood, their 
teftimony may be relied on; and the yew will be 
found to have a very good claim to be accounted 
ind genous, becaufe the abundance of foffil vege- 
tables concealed in our marfhes proves that they 
were formed when the land was over-run with 
wood. Britain, therefore, numbered the yew 
amongft her productions, before agriculture and 
the art of planting were known to her inhabit- 
ants. 
Secondly: It is highly probable, that an 
obferving perfon might eafily determine to what 
height the hills of this ifland have been anciently 
covered with wood: for fwamps are frequent on 
the fides of mountains, forming horizontal planes 
that interrupt their declivities. In fome of thefe, 
which are much elevated, no trees are found ; 
but I know a fmall -one between two and three 
hundred yards above the level of the furrounding 
country, which abounds in Birch, and have been 
informed of another, where Fir is plentiful. 
Thirdly: A thin bed of peat often covers the 
floping fides of hills, where the ground is full of 
fprings, but it differs in texture from the foil of 
Slat bogs, as appears from the different methods 
obferved in digging them: for the country people 
cut the latter horizontally; but, in working the 
former, they firike their fpades perpendicularly 
down; otherwife the parts detached by this ope- 
Bia ration 
