PHYSICAL CONDITIONS— POSTGLACIAL. 531 



in the peat of " camp-kettles," wooden roadways, and so forth, 

 as evidence that the bogs must have originated from the over- 

 throw of our forests by the legions ; but, as already mentioned, 

 many of these relics are now known to belong to the Bronze 

 Period, and their position in the peat only shows that the bogs 

 had already become unstable wastes long before the entrance of 

 our Eoman civilisers. Professor Grisebach has likewise shown 

 that in Northern Germany much of the peat is of prehistoric 

 antiquity, and Blytt has come to the same conclusion in regard 

 to the peat of Norway. Nevertheless it is not denied that the 

 Romans destroyed much woodland, and that our own people in 

 more recent times continued to clear the land of its great forests. 

 The names of places often testify to the former presence, even 

 in late historical times, of considerable forests ; and now and 

 again one comes upon a country rhyme that seems to tell a like 

 tale. Such are the lines quoted by Steele 1 as being current in 

 the parish of West Calder, Midlothian : — 



" Calder wood was fair to see 

 When it went to Cameltree ; 

 Calder wood was fairer still 

 "When it went o'er Crosswoodhill." 



Again, the old statist of the parish of Banff says that in the now 

 treeless maritime district the following distich is repeated by 

 the country people : — 



" From Culbirnie to the sea 

 You may step from tree to tree." 2 



In the Ehondda valley, South Wales, I have heard it said that 

 " a squirrel could at one time travel from Treherbert to Ponty- 

 pridd without touching the ground." This reminds one of 

 the similar statement said to occur in an old document at 

 Piirstenau in Osnabriick : — " Ein Eichhornchen konne von 

 Baum zu Baum springend von dort bis Lingen gelangen." 5 



1 The Natural and Agricultural History of Peat-moss or Turf-bog, etc., p. 383. 



a Sinclair's Statistical Account of Scotland, vol. xx. p. 332. 



3 A squirrel springing from tree to tree can go from here to Lingen. 



