166 KEMIXISCEXCES OF A SPORTSMAN". 



that until the oak tree will suit itself to some parts of 

 the soil the sportsman must be content with stalking 

 deer and shooting the roebuck and capercailzie. 



It is very dangerous to persons unacquainted with 

 the nature of the bogs in Scotland, and the same may- 

 be said of those in England and Ireland, but custom will 

 soon enable the sportsman to traverse these morasses. 

 They may be traversed vnih perfect safety whenever 

 stones lie about them, although the ground may look 

 ever so bad. Peat has many antiseptic qualities, and 

 Mr. Scrope says, " many instances are recorded of bodies 

 long buried being found fresh and imimpaired after a 

 lapse of years." He mentions particularly the body of 

 a woman who was found six feet deep in the Isle of 

 Anxholme in Lincolnshire. The antique sandals on her 

 feet afforded evidence of her having been there for 

 many ages, yet her hair, nails, and skin, are described 

 as having shown scarcely any marks of decay. I have 

 seen at Bordeaux in a considerable sized vault nume- 

 rous bodies of persons who had been buried for man}- 

 years in the adjacent churchyard, which, on being dis 

 interred, were found in perfect preservation, from the 

 antiseptic nature of the soil. On entering the vault ] 

 saw a man placed upright against the wall, full seven 

 feet in height, who had been porter to some French 

 nobleman. A little on his right was a French marquis 

 who had been killed in a duel, and the sexton showed 

 me the wound which he had received on his right side. 

 In another part of the vault was a man, with his wife 

 and six young children, all in good preservation. I felt 

 the skin of some of these bodies, which was like dried 

 parchment. Besides those I have mentioned, there 

 were many others which did not interest me. I have 



