4?3 JCCOUNF of FEAT-MOSSES 



refts, being at no great diftance from the above frontier, were 

 cut down by the Romans for the purpofe of depriving the na- 

 tives of the faftneiTes and places of ftrength from which they 

 were continually making incurfions into the province ; and 

 that from the trees thus cut down, and fuffered to rot upon 

 thofe low and marfhy grounds, originated the vaft body of peat- 

 mofs which covers them at the prefent time. The production 

 of peat-mofs from the decay of forefts, is not a pojlulatum that 

 will be fuppofed fubjecl to any difficulty. It is a principle adr 

 mitted by naturalifts, on the ground of actual obfervation*, 

 with refpecl at lead to countries in high latitudes, and ferves 

 to explain many appearances in other parts of this ifland, which 

 have a great refemblance to thofe that have now been defcri- 

 bedf. 



* See Lord Cromarty's paper on Peat-mofs, Phil. Tranf. vol. xxvii. p. 296. 



f See an Account of Hatfield Chace near Doncafter, Phil. Tranf. vol. xxii. p. 980, 

 It may be proper to obferve, that the mofTes of Kincardine, &.c. being placed above 

 the level of the adjacent plain, are of the kind that might be expected to break 

 out and overfpread the lower grounds, which however they are not known to 

 have done, while they remained in their natural ftate. They do not indeed abound 

 very much in water, infomuch that the floating off of the peat, when it is carried to 

 fuch an extent as it is now, requires an artificial fupply of water. This fupply is 

 accordingly procured at prefent by an engine which Mr Drummond has caufed to 

 be erefted for raifing water from the Teith, and which is one of the mofl material 

 improvements that has been made in the hufbandry of the mofs. 



But though there is no memory of the mofe having flowed while it remained 

 in its natural ftate, on the 21ft March 1792, it burft out on the weft fide, near the 

 fouthermoft cottage, to the height of its fide-wall, covering fifty-fix yards in 

 breadth, and about the extent of an acre of ground that had been cleared, and 

 early in the morning of the fame day of 1793. ( unce the firft communication of 

 this paper), it was discovered to have flowed again, and to have reached the 

 northermoft cottage of the fame line of houfes. The inhabitants efcaped by a Win- 

 dow on the oppofite fide of the houfe. The mofs afterwards bore down the fide-- 

 walls of the houfe that were built of ftone, and continued to flow flowly forward, 

 I eight 



