270 A HUNDKED YEAKS 



One must not, however, judge altogether of the age of 

 peat by its depth. The best peat I have ever seen for 

 burning purposes was only one foot in depth below the 

 top sod, and had grown on blue clay, so that, as we cut 

 the fuel, the lowest end of each peat had the clay attached 

 to it, and turned into red bricks in the fire. These peats 

 were nearly equal to coal, and were evidently like the 

 Irishman's pig, very little and very old, which is much 

 more of a merit in peat than in pigs. 



I might go rambling on with my peat stories — about 

 peat at the bottom of lochs, and submarine peat-bogs 

 which I have seen at low spring-tides, which, I am 

 ashamed to say, I have never thoroughly examined, and 

 which must, at least, have the merit of being really very 

 old; but instead of commencing anew I will stop. 



Since writing the above I have been in the Lews, and I 

 have seen there peat such as I never imagined could be 

 found anywhere in Great Britain. On the mainland of 

 Ross-shire it is uncommon to find peat six or eight feet 

 deep, but between Skigersta and North Tolsta the peat 

 for miles is from sixteen to twenty-six feet in depth. 



Can any of my readers help me to fathom some of the 

 many mysteries that lie at the bottom of our peat-bogs 

 and lochs, which have always interested me so much ? 

 What puzzles me perhaps most of all are the stems of 

 birch and hazel which I find six and eight feet below 

 the surface, with the bark (especially of the former) as 

 smooth and glistening as if the trees had been cut only 

 the previous day; indeed, the bark of the bog birches 

 is generally much whiter than that of the more or less 

 stunted modern birches of this west coast, which is a 



