and Peat Mosses of Scotland. 21 



With regard to the distribution of the trees, atmospheric condi- 

 tions and a light gravelly soil are supposed to have favored the 

 growth of the Pine in more elevated positions, while the Oak grew 

 in the Drift Clays and Earths at lower levels ; the great conifers of 

 a former period having flourished in the South of England and Ire- 

 land, but their native growth being now confined to a limited area in 

 the North of Scotland. 



The destruction of the ancient forests by wind, lightning, ice, and 

 the hand of man, is treated of at considerable length, — the fact that 

 the buried trunks frequently lie all one way, in a direction corres- 

 ponding with that of the prevailing wind, where they occur, being- 

 stated, and numerous references to "Eennie's Essays," and other 

 sources of information, being given. " In winter time the trees of 

 the American forests sometimes become so heavily laden with snow 

 and ice that they are borne to the gi'ound by the pressure." " The 

 marks of fire are conspicuous upon the trees of some of our Peat 

 Mosses," and, "besides the evidence of his [man's] hand afforded 

 by the charred wood under peat, we sometimes come upon marks 

 of adze and hatchet." 



The condition of the country with regard to its forests anterior to 

 and in the times of the early writers is described from many sources, 

 including Solinus, Ossian, Torfaens, Boethius, Chalmers, Tytler, and 

 ^neas Silvius, and the cutting down of the woods by the Eomans 

 and older inhabitants of Britain, with the stringent measures enacted 

 by Scottish Parliaments, from the time of James the First, to pre- 

 serve them, are noticed. One of the latter, in the reign of James 

 IV., says, " Anent the artikle of greene wood, because that the wood 

 of Scotland is utterly destroyed, the unlaw theirof beand sa little : 

 Therefore," etc. ; and subsequently, in 1587, an act inflicted the 

 penalty of death upon "whatsoever persone or persones wilfully 

 destroyis and cuttis growand trees and comes." 



Having considered these causes for the disappearance of ancient 

 forests, Mr. Geikie proceeds to give his own view as to the chief 

 agents in the work of destruction, bearing the structural peculiarities 

 of peat in mind, and mentioning them in detail, — from the close 

 compact peat below to that which is less so above it, in which 

 mossy fibres of "Sphagnum and its allies" may be detected, long 

 grasses being seen throughout the section, becoming more abundant 

 near the top, where twigs of heather may be observed, the upper- 

 most foot or so being chiefly made up of heather and grasses, and 

 such plants as Polytrichum. 



The deposition of another variety, under water, the tissue of which 

 has been nearly lost, is stated to occur in flow-bogs, th« peat of 

 which is a mere crust overspreading a sheet of water. The origin 

 of the latter kind is considered evident, deposition taking place from 

 what is growing above ; but the author admits some difficulty in 

 accounting for that of the former, in which the trees are found. He 

 argues well that the overturning of the timber was not necessary to 

 have produced sufficient drainage obstruction, and consequent 

 moisture, for the growth of the moss, and refers both the decay of 



