374 



THE SCOTCH FIR, OR 



from sixty to seventy bushels of chips. Trunks of Oak 

 are often found lying in the gravel beneath the peat, but 

 Fir has never been noticed in such situations. These trees 

 are invariably rooted in the peat, but at various depths, 

 evidently proving that their growth did not commence 

 until the bog was actually in the course of formation, and 

 that they succeeded each other as in the Highland forests. 

 Instances, indeed, occur in which a large stump is fixed in 

 the peat immediately over another ; more rarely a prostrate 

 trunk is found at such a distance beneath the roots of 

 another that more than a century must have elapsed 

 between the destruction of the first and the growth of its 

 successor. 



In the bog districts, the wood obtained from these 

 sources forms the principal fuel. It makes a brilliant and 

 fragrant fire, a property of no little value in the cheerless 

 districts where it abounds ; though one is by no means 

 disposed on that account to forgive the bogs for having 

 swallowed up the noble forests, the place of which they 

 have usurped. This wood is also much used as a build- 

 ing material, especially when it is likely to be exposed 

 to wet, its long seasoning having rendered it indestruc- 

 tible by flamp. For the same reason it is preferred to 



