ROSS-SHIRE. 261 



had stood, was all over a plain green ground, covered 

 with a plain green moss. I asked the country people, 

 who were with me, what had become of the wood, and 

 who carried it away. They told me that nobody was 

 at the pains to carry it away, but that, it being all 

 overturned from the roots by the winds, the trees did 

 lie so thick and swarving over one another that the 

 green moss there (in the British language called fog) 

 had overgrown the whole timber, which they said was 

 occasioned by the moisture that came down from the 

 high hill which was above it, and did stagnate upon 

 that plain ; and they said none could pass over it, 

 because the scurf of the fog would not support them. 

 I would needs try it, and accordingly I fell in to 

 the armpits, but was immediately pulled up by them. 



"Before the year 1699 that piece of ground was 

 turned into a common moss, where the country people 

 were digging turf and peat, and continue to do so. 

 The peats, as yet, are not of the best, and are soft and 

 spungy, but grow better and better, and, as I am 

 informed, it does now afford good peats. 



