SCOTTISH FORESTS IN TIMES PAST 309 



The swing of the climatic pendulum brought again a 

 period of wetter conditions during which the main masses 

 of " recent " peat were formed. Physical conditions favoured 

 the extension of peat and moorland areas at the expense of 

 forest, for the humic acid of the peat bogs acts as a destroyer 

 of trees, and winds favour low growing moorland vege- 

 tation rather than saplings exposed to the full fury of the 

 blast. As peat and moorland spread, woodland decayed, 

 and the destructive influence of man was for long aided and 

 abetted by the processes of Nature. 



At the present day the moist conditions of the time of the 

 "recent" peat formations have somewhat ameliorated, for in 

 many places, peat, instead of forming, is itself decaying and 

 being washed away by the weather. So that had not man 

 stepped in to interfere, forest areas would probably now 

 have been undergoing a natural extension. 



EARLY HISTORICAL FORESTS 



Between the records of the peat-bogs and the annals of 

 history there is a chasm difficult to bridge. At what period 

 of human development the great Upper Forest of the Peat 

 began to decay under the excessive moisture of later times. 

 we do not know. The forest had certainly been replaced to 

 some extent by swamp before the opening of the Christian 

 era, and the Roman historians are at one in describing 

 Caledonia as a land of clouds and rain, of bogs and morasses. 

 Yet they are equally emphatic as regards the great extent 

 of wood and the variety of trees which clothed the land. 

 Other evidence, such as that deduced from the distribution 

 of primitive iron-smelting furnaces, points to the occurrence 

 of great tracts of forest in late prehistoric times and in 

 places whence woodland has almostor altogether disappeared. 



The earliest references to Scottish woodland are, how- 

 ever, of comparatively late date, and show that in the 

 twelfth century the necessity had already arisen of conserving 

 forest growth by laws and penalties. The Leges Forestarum, 

 generally ascribed to the reign of William the Lion (i 165- 

 1214), though by many held to be of later date, prohibit 

 the taking of fire or of domestic animals into the woods, as 

 well as the cutting of oak trees. Some of the penalties are 

 curious: if fire, a horse, or a dog were brought to the wood, 



