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Were the turf bogs reclaimed and made productive, I think this 

 district might be considered as one of the most fertile in the king- 

 dom. The vales are formed principally by mud carried down by 

 the rivers which flow through it, and deposited there by the tide's 

 opposing the current thereof ; many ages must have been required 

 to effect this, but it is evident that the whole of this district is 

 raised to a considerable height, above its original level ; and that 

 the turf bogs were in former days dry and firm land, not subject 

 to inundation from the sea, or to the stagnation of the river 

 waters ; else how can we account for timber trees of great dimen- 

 sions, both oak, fir, and willow, being found at the depth of 15 

 or 20 feet, standing in the same erect posture in which they 

 grew ; and reeds and other palustrine plants, at the same depth 

 and in the same posture. Human bones, furze bushes, and nut 

 trees with nuts, have been found at the same depth. Now it is 

 manifest, that neither furze nor nut trees will grow under water. 

 It appears therefore probable, that the whole of this level was at a 

 former period dry, firm land ; and that by some violent convul- 

 sion of nature it became of a sudden inundated ; this is in some 

 degree confirmed by the extraordinary depth of the clay or sound 

 ground, on the verge of the Highlands ; and it is well known, that 

 in many parts of this kingdom the sea has gained on the land, and 

 in other parts the land has gained on the sea. 



The improvement of such a tract of barren unproductive land, 

 would impart the most pleasing sensations to the mind, and I 

 verily think that two grand drains, accompanied with proper 

 lateral ditches, such as I have now suggested, would increase the 

 rent of this district eight or ten thousand pounds per year. 



The profit which has attended the improvement already prac- 

 tised during the last twenty years is, I should think, a sufficient in- 

 centive. Scarcely a farmer can now be found who does not possess 

 a considerable landed property, and many whose fathers' lived in 

 idleness and sloth on the precarious support of a few half starved 

 cows, or a few limping geese, are now in affluence, and blessed 

 with every needful species of enjoyment. Disorders of the body, 

 to which the stagnant waters heretofore subjected them, are now 

 scarcely known, and the inhabitants for the most part arrive to a 

 good old age, 



SOIL, 



