In PERTHSHIRE. 27 





The facts which have now been defcribed will perhaps be 

 found, upon examination, to point out the caufe by which thefe 

 trees were brought into their prefent fituation, and alfo the 

 time when that event mud: have taken place. 



For, firft, thefe facts are utterly inconfiftent with the fuppo- 

 iition that the trees have fallen through natural decay ; as in that 

 cafe, they muft have been broken over at different heights above 

 the furface, and both the trunks and the roots muft have been 

 too far advanced in putrefaction, before the mofs was formed 

 over them, for any part of them to remain found at this 

 day. 



The fame circumflances feem alfo irreconcileable with the 

 fuppofition, that thefe forefts have been blown down by the 

 wind, as in that cafe alfo the trees muft h*ve been broken over at 

 different heights, and muft frequently have been torn up by 

 the roots ; a {ingle inftance of either of which has not been 

 feen by the author of thefe remarks. It is indeed faid, that a 

 few fingle roots, in different parts of the mofs, have been ob- 

 ferved. which feem to be torn up, and what is perhaps difficult 

 to be explained, no trunk was found attached to them. 



It cannot be admitted as an argument in fupport of the pre- 

 ceding fuppofition, that the trees lie moft frequently in the di- 

 rection from fouth-weft to north- eaft. For as the fouth-weft 

 wind is the prevailing and moft violent wind in this country, 

 the weight of the tops of the trees is generally turned from 

 that quarter ; and by whatever caufe they fall, they will there- 

 fore, in general, be directed towards the north-eaft. 



The moft plaufible folution therefore is, that the trees have 

 been cut down. The height of the flumps, which is common- 

 ly about two feet and a half, favours this opinion, as, at that 

 height, the diameter of a large tree is ufually much lefs than it 

 is nearer the ground, and as the cutter can better apply his 



Vol. III. M m ftrength 



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