THE PINE. 33 



those stratified bogs the lowermost timber. It is at 

 the very bottom, reposing generally upon sand or 

 clay, without any trace of vegetable mould, which 

 appears to have been absorbed by the mosses, or in- 

 corporated with them into the very hard peat in 

 which the oak is contained. It may be proper also 

 to mention, that the roots of the oak are wholly con- 

 tained in the moss, and do not, in any instance that 

 we have seen, penetrate into the sand or clay. Some 

 of the oaks that have been found in the peat mosses 

 of Scotland are of large dimensions, and they are 

 often met with in situations where oaks now grow 

 with difficulty, and never attain any size; and 

 hence, as the oak is not a native of very cold 

 climates, we may conclude that the climate of 

 those places must have been more genial at some 

 former period than it is at present. Pines are not 

 very generally found in the same bogs or mosses 

 with oak; but when they are so, they occur about 

 the same apparent period of the formation, and are 

 to be traced only on the more elevated parts of the 

 original surface on which the bog rests. 



The stratum of peat in which the oak is contained 

 is, as has been mentioned, of a compact texture, and 

 some of it forms a fuel but little inferior to coal. 

 About it there is often found a stratum, in which 

 there is much more wood than that below; but the 

 kinds are different. Birch and hazel are the prevail- 

 ing woods in that second stratum: the timber is in 

 general decayed; but the nuts of the hazel are in a 

 state of considerable preservation; and some of the 

 seeds that have been found at this depth have vege- 

 tated, though they had probably lain for several cen- 

 turies in the peat earth, in which their outer coats 

 must have been literally tanned. When there is a 

 third stratum of wood, which is not often the case, 

 the timber which it contains is chiefly alder, with 



