CALEDONLE. 329 



But the fact is, that the pine forests both of 

 Scotland and the Scottish isles, and of Ireland, 

 have been buried and not burned. The remains 

 of them are in the bogs of both countries, so 

 abundant as to serve in many cases both as fuel 

 and as a substitute for candles ; and so sound and 

 fresh as, in not a few, to answer the purposes of 

 domestic economy. 



In the natural history of vegetables, those facts 

 are important in two respects ; first, they show 

 that there are certain periods at which forests fade 

 off, both by the old trees dying, and the seeds 

 ceasing to germinate ; and secondly, that death 

 is not owing to any gradual deterioration of the 

 timber, in that of one succession becoming weaker 

 than another, till the last is so soft and spongy 

 that the weather breaks it up ; for the remains of 

 the trees in the peat bogs, and they are met with 

 many feet below the surface, are not inferior to 

 the very best of those that still remain at a few 

 points on the surface, and even provide a succes- 

 sion, though with comparatively small and, as it 

 is said, gradually diminishing additions. No 

 matter what the trees are, they are perfect in their 

 interment, according to the known durability of 

 their species. The, sweet woods, as they may be 

 called, from having little pungency, or astringent 

 matter, such as the birch, the alder, and the hazle, 

 have form down to the minutest twig, but they 

 have no consistency, while the oak and the pine, 

 although consumed in the alluvium, in proportion 

 to the time they may be supposed to have lain, as 

 well as to the peculiar nature of the accumulation 

 over and about them, are perfect in the hearty 

 wood, 



F f 3 



