The Moors. 59 



the growing timber, and eventually led to the results de- 

 scribed above. Baines (History of Lancashire, iii. 131) 

 says of Chat Moss, that it was originally the site of an 

 immense forest, but was reduced to a bog by the Roman 

 invaders, at a period coeval with the first promulgation 

 of the Christian religion. It would probably be no error 

 to assert with Whitaker, that the whole of the country 

 round Manchester, and not merely the site of Chat 

 Moss, was, at the time of the Romans, covered with 

 trees. One thing is quite certain, namely, that the forma- 

 tion of the mosses is comparatively recent, and probably 

 much within one thousand eight hundred years. They 

 appear to rest universally on a clayey substratum, and it 

 is very interesting to observe that where the peat is wholly 

 removed, for the purpose of fuel, as upon Holford Moss, 

 near Toft and Peover, the clay surface being then laid 

 bare, birch-trees spring up unsown. The seeds of these 

 trees must have been lying there since they ripened, 

 unable to vegetate previously for want of air and the 

 solar warmth. It is quite a familiar phenomenon for 

 plants to spring up in this way from seeds that have been 

 buried for ages, especially on earth laid bare by cuttings 

 for railways and similar works ; so in truth it is no more 

 than would be expected in connection with the clearing 

 away of peat, and the restoration of the under-surface. 

 The tree next in frequency to the birch, as a denizen of 

 the old silva, appears to have been the oak. 



"Moors" are a more consolidated form of mosses. 

 Seated, most usually, on higher and more easily drained 



