Growth of the Peat. 33 



heaped to a great depth, act like a gigantic drain, and so prevent 

 any soil from forming. As far as I can ascertain, no attempt 

 has ever been made to estimate the rate of movement (if any) of 

 these " runs," and there is no evidence whatever of their motion 

 during the present century. There is not sufficient land com- 

 prised by the watershed to form torrents capable of removing the 

 dense mass of peaty soil, which, according to Sir W, Thompson's 

 theory, would have been necessary for the transportation of the 

 large blocks of stone that are here accumulated. The inhabitants 

 remark, and I think with truth, that the summits of the hills and 

 the upper slopes are as a rule more wet and boggy than the 

 hollows below. This supports my view of the drainage being 

 greatest in the valleys where the big stones were originally packed 

 to a greater depth, and towards which the peat is now encroach- 

 ing. It is worthy of remark that the surface of the stream is 

 tolerably flat, and does not indicate a process of accumulation by 

 flow from either side. 



To Dr. Watts, my guide on this occasion, I was also indebted 

 for a skin of the Falkland Island fox, an animal now almost 

 extinct, a skull of the sea elephant, and a dried specimen of 

 the petrel, which is known here as the "fire bird," from its 

 habit of dashing itself against the lantern of the lighthouse, at 

 whose base dead specimens are occasionally found. 



