BRITISH POSTGLACIAI 6- RECENT DEPOSITS. 421 



bog at Benhall, East Kilbride, and again at Thriepwood, Dalserf, 

 both in Lanarkshire, oaks that measured between 60 and 70 

 feet in length have been obtained at an elevation of 500 feet 

 above the sea. At Thriepwood one of these trees measured 65 

 feet in length, " and was as straight as the mast of a ship, and 

 so equal in thickness at both ends that it was not easy to say 

 which was the root." 1 This, indeed, is quite a common character 

 of the bog- trees, — they grew close, and tall and straight — 

 showing few or no branches below. The pines are equally 

 remarkable for their size, and had also formerly a wider 

 distribution than at present, and similar remarks apply to the 

 other trees mentioned above. The pine, however, does not 

 appear to have formed any extensive forests at the lowest levels 

 of the country, although its remains have been dug up in many 

 lowland peat-mosses, where oak forms the bulk of the buried 

 timber. 



"Now and again the peat-bogs contain more than one forest- 

 bed. Thus in the peat of Strathcluony, three successive tiers 

 of Scots firs were observed with peat between. In other places 

 I have been told by peat-diggers that at the bottom of the bogs 

 they usually get oak, and that when an upper stratum or tier 

 of trees occurs the common species is generally Scots fir. I 

 have never been so fortunate, however, as to see such a succes- 

 sion exposed in open section ; but from what I have heard, 

 I am led to believe that the phenomenon is by no means 

 uncommon. Very much, however, yet remains to be done by 

 Scottish botanists before our peat-bogs can be said to be as well 

 known as those of the Continent. A systematic examination of 

 the peat-mosses of Lowlands and Highlands would, I feel sure, 

 amply repay any competent observer for his time and labour, 

 for, notwithstanding all that has been written upon the subject, 

 much of that literature is of little value. Very few competent 

 botanists seem to have turned their attention to the matter, and 

 yet from the results obtained by Mr. Axel Blytt in Norway 



1 Alton's Treatise on (tie Origin, Qualities, and Cultivation of Moss-Earth, 

 etc., p. xxvii. 



