272 A HUNDRED YEARS IN THE HIGHLANDS 



earthquake or some other inexplicable cause, the peat 

 on the hillside began sliding down like a black avalanche 

 and overwhelmed the birch-wood, then one would 

 certainly quite understand the white bark on the birches 

 being preserved. But, unfortunately, this theory is im- 

 possible, as deep peat does not form on steep mountains 

 in a sufficient quantity to cause a landslide; and besides, 

 where I came across the white-stemmed birches in the 

 bogs there are no hills high enough or near enough for 

 peat or anything else to have slipped down and covered 

 these thousands of acres of flat moor. 



Then, as regards the remains of forests at the bottom 

 of lochs, I happen to own a great many lochs and tarns, 

 and when boating on them, on a calm day with a clear 

 sky, the tree-stumps can be seen side by side, just as they 

 grew before these lochs existed. Now, how were these 

 lochs created to the ruin of thousands of acres of forest ? 

 It would be most interesting to examine some of the 

 deeper lochs, with an electric light appliance, to see if 

 there are remains of forests in them as well as in the 

 shallower ones. I dare say some people will imagine that 

 the roots have got washed into the lochs in great floods ; 

 well, this might have happened so far as logs or branches 

 are concerned, but the stumps I refer to are all firmly 

 rooted in the bottom, each one just where the original 

 grain of Pinus sylvestris seed fell, germinated, and 

 grew up. 



THE END 



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