/// PERTHSHIRE. 269 



covered with heath, but when examined more clofely, is found 

 to be made up only of fmall tufts of heath, intermixed with 

 mofs- plants, fuch as ling, cotton grafs, and in one fpot with 

 wild rofemary ; thefe tufts being feparated from each other by 

 fpaces of bog, which are quite foft, and have no plant whatever 

 on their furface. 



When laid open, this mofs is found to confift of an accumu- 

 lation of the debris of the fame plants, which are more or lefs ad- 

 vanced in putrefaction, according to the depth, and the degrees of 

 humidity and compreflion. At the bottom of the mofs, or at the 

 furface of the clay on which it refts, is a ftratum compofed chiefly 

 of bits of rotten wood, but with which is mingled fometimes 

 a little black earth, and fometimes alfo bunches of heath, far 

 more entire than thofe which are found nearer to the furface of 

 the mofs. Here alfo are innumerable trunks of trees, lying 

 along clofe by their roots, which roots are flill fixed in the 

 clay, as in their natural ftate. The roots of the heath are alfo 

 fixed in the clay, and appear to have been the production of 

 the foil before the mofs was fuperinduced over it. 



In the mofs of Kincardine, is a confiderable extent of what is 

 cd\\ed flow-mofs, that is, flowing or fluid mofs, the furface of which 

 is fmooth, and which, until lately drained, was fo faturated with 

 the water that was confined in it, either by the great extent of 

 mofs upon all fides, or by the greater height of fome of the ad- 

 joining grounds, as to be almoft literally in the ftate which its 

 name indicates. The other parts of the mofs have generally 

 fuch a degree of folidity as fits them for being cut into peat, 

 at leaft towards the bottom ; for in the upper parts the plants 

 are too little advanced in putrefaction, and too little compref- 

 fed, to have the cohefion requifite to be formed into peat. 



The methods ufed for improving thefe moffes have been 

 various. Sometimes, after the mofs was fo far drained by the com- 

 mon operation of making it into peat, as to bear cattle in dry 



weather. 



