Kinahan — Deal Timber in the Lake Basins of Donegal. 633 



being close to the corker, and rarely a few feet above it. This is 

 the case, as far as my experience goes, not only elsewhere in 

 Ireland, but also elsewhere in the county of Donegal, the trees 

 having fallen before the bog grew, while here the bog must have 

 grown around the standing trees. Furthermore, these trees must 

 have been higher than as now represented, as it is possible they may 

 have protruded, not only into the "going-over" before the last, 

 but into higher strata; their original perpendicular height, how- 

 ever, cannot now be recorded, as all the cuttings of the bog but the 

 last "going-over" was in the time of the ancestors of the present 

 generation. 



Besides this uncommon phenomenon, that is, peat banking up 

 standing timber, there is another peculiarity to which I may refer — 

 the spiral growth of many of the trees. This, however, is not 

 confined to the timber in this bog, as I have remarked it in the county 

 Donegal and elsewhere in Ireland. This I first remarked in the 

 Cypress in Ontario, and it seems to be due to the hot suns in the 

 Spring causing the bark on the south side of the stems to grow 

 much quicker than on the cold north side ; the trees that germi- 

 nate early being thus affected, while the later ones are not. In 

 these ancient Irish forests the same thing seems to have taken place, 

 as in places many of the trees grew spiral, while adjoining ones 

 grew straight. I do not know enough to be able to state if the 

 timber which grows spiral is of a different species to that which 

 has grown straight, but I would point out that in the bog of Kil- 

 pheak, north-west of Fox Hall, a large stick 20 yards long, 3 feet 

 in diameter at the butt, and over a foot in diameter at top, and 

 having its bark in ridges, just like a cog-wheel, was raised a few 

 years ago, it having a quite different appearance to the sticks gene- 

 rally found. The timber had an appearance somewhat similar to 

 the "yellow pine" now imported. 



In the country north-west of Lake Superior, between Port 

 Arthur and the Lake of the "Woods, during the making of the 

 Canadian North Pacific Eailway, sections in peat now overgrown 

 with timber were laid open. In them, as in the Irish bogs, timber 

 had grown prior to the accumulation of the peat ; but time did not 

 allow of making special examinations. The fact, therefore, is only 

 mentioned to show that there, as well as in Ireland, climatic 

 or some other natural change will account for the records of the 



