l>li. ANGUS SMITH OX PEAT. 313 



first gave would show. 1 had the pleasure of visiting a part 

 of Glen Lonnan with Mr. Duncan Clerk (Writer, Oban) and 

 his brother. These gentlemen had a distinct remembrance 

 of peat being cut in the glen forty-five years previously ; 

 both knew the place precisely and without any shadow of 

 doubt ; and we proceeded to dig in order to ascertain how 

 much had grown since the last disturbance. We found 20 

 inches of clear peat before coming to the debris left 

 on the surface after digging. This point is easily as- 

 certained. We may be liberal in the calculation and not 

 exact the whole 20 inches, but say that the rate was that 

 of 3 feet in a century. The bog was soft, but still 

 hard enough to allow us to stand or walk over, and would 

 contain about 75 per cent, of water, as I know from expe- 

 rience of other places ; but in this place I prefer to take 

 the higher number often found and call it 80, leaving 20 

 per cent, of solid matter. 



Further down the valley we found an old highland woman 

 living entirely alone and far from neighbours. She called 

 herself eighty-five years old ; but it was clear that her mind 

 had not suffered by time. She told us of the spot that was 

 cut when she was ten years old ; and I entirely credit her. 

 The growth here was not measured by digging, but by 

 comparison with the surrounding ground. It was about 

 3 J feet, which is 4.-^ feet in a century. It is sometimes 

 unsafe to judge of the depth by the exposed side, because 

 there are cases where the peat is so soft as to be pressed 

 out from below ; but then there is a gradual lowering or 

 an incline, and no such thing occurred here : the sides 

 were firm and kept their level. 



My next observation was on the estate of Durris, 

 belonging to James Young, F.R.S., on the Dee, in Kin- 

 cardineshire. I was taken to the side of the hill Cairn- 

 monearn by a man named Davidson, an intelligent cotter, 

 who showed the spot where he had dug peats forty-four 



SER. III. vol. v. y 



