258 ACCOUNT of PEATMOSSES 



Craigforth, is lefs than ten feet, and this on a diftance of forty 

 miles, meafuring by the courfe of the river, or of eighteen 

 miles, meafuring in a flraight line. The furface of the river 

 is about twenty-one feet below the level of the clay-ground on 

 each fide of it ; yet in floods, the country is often overflowed to 

 a confiderable extent. 



A great part of the furface of this country is covered by 

 peat bogs, or mofTes, as they are ufually called. The firftof thefe 

 mofTes and the furtheft eaft:, is that of Kincardine, which lies in 

 the angle between the Forth and the Teith, and reaches weftward 

 as far as Burnbank, after which the carfe is clear of mofs through 

 its whole breadth for the fpace of two miles and a half. Beyond 

 this, Mofs-FIanders commences, and extends weftward all the 

 way to Cardrofs, occupying a large portion of the carfe on 

 both fides of the Forth. The mofs of Kincardine, when mea- 

 fured twenty five years ago, contained above 1800 acres ; but 

 the operations which will be defcribed hereafter have now re- 

 duced it to about 1500. 



Both thefe mofTes are of the fame nature, as are alfo fome 

 others lefs confiderable, which lie in this tracl, to wit, the mof- 

 fes of Frofk, Dunmore and Kinnaird, which occupy a large 

 fhare of the carfe that lies at the head of the Frith, and alfo 

 betwixt the rivers of Forth and Carron. The mofs of Frofk 

 begins about five miles to the fouth-eafl of that of Kincardine, 

 and the mofs of Kinnaird reaches within a mile and a half of 

 the river Carron. The length of all thefe mofTes, from the head 

 of Mofs-FIanders near Cardrofs, to the fouth eaft point of the 

 mofs of Kinnaird, deducing the intervals that are clear of peat, 

 is about fifteen miles, and the total of their contents is com- 

 puted to exceed 9000 acres. The greateft height of the mofs 

 above the clay on which it lies is fourteen feet and a half. 



The furface of the peat-mofs which thus rifes above the le- 

 vel of the carfe, when viewed at a little diftance, feems wholly 



covered 



