IN THE HIGHLANDS 269 



fixed in the subsoil and their stumps are close to the 

 bottom; but this is not always the case, for near the 

 surface of this bog we found several immense stumps, 

 and, on attempting to count the rings on one of the roots 

 which we sawed off, we arrived at the conclusion that 

 the tree was about four hundred years old when it ceased 

 to live. Now, it is about four hundred years since my 

 ancestors came from Kintail and took possession of 

 Gairloch by a coup de main, and we know that at that 

 time (and probably long before then) these shores had a 

 resident population. It is therefore unlikely that these 

 trees would have been allowed to remain standing so 

 close to the seashore at the head of Loch Ewe for very 

 long after the place became inhabited. Supposing 

 these trees, then, to have been dead some five hundred 

 years, and that they were four hundred years old when 

 destroyed, that takes us nearly one thousand years 

 back. Query, then how old is the lower layer of peat in 

 the bog which lies fourteen feet below the stumps ? 



I have heard of a bog at Kenlochewe which was 

 drained and improved, and in it were two distinct sets 

 of fir roots, one above the other, with a considerable 

 layer of peat between them. Nearly all the bog stumps 

 in this country have marks of fire on them and charcoal 

 about them. Now, it would seem that in this case two 

 successive forests sprung up, grew to maturity, and were 

 destroyed, and that between each crop of fir there had 

 been a sufficient interregnum for the peat to form and to 

 cover up and preserve each set of roots. It would be 

 what the lawyers would call " a nice question '' as to 

 how many centuries the remains of the two forests and 

 the layers of peat represent. 



