[ i'5 1 



rio fuch inftances have, or can be brought. 

 On the contrary, it is to be proved in all 

 the countries where paring has been long 

 in vogue, that very fliallow foils have 

 been many times pared within the memory 

 of old men, who likewife retain the tra- 

 dition of the fame foil having long before 

 their time received the fame treatment, and 

 yet remained at the former thicknefs. 



But if the difference of the thicknefs of 

 the turf pared, and the thinnefs of the 

 afhes fpread were the rule to judge by ; 

 the argument in proving too much, would 

 prove nothing. Many tra6ts of the fhal- 

 low land in queftion, have been known to 

 be regularly pared, and burnt once every 

 12 or 15 years, for a century paft. Now 

 fuppofing it had loft ths of an inch every 

 time, in only eight times fuffering this 

 operation, the furface muft have been re- 

 duced 6 inches in thicknefs : but how does 

 fuch a ftate of the cafe agree with the foil 

 being at this day 6 inches thick, and well 

 known never to have exceeded it ? Which 

 is actually the cafe -with feveral trails of 

 land I have viewed both in the northern 

 and weftern parts of this kingom. There 

 is, in a word, great reafon to think that 

 I 2 this 



