AND PEAT MOSSES OF SCOTLAND. 365 



to Mr Watson, it is now restricted to latitudes 50-58°, finding its northern limits 

 in Ross, Aberdeenshire, and western Inverness-shire * But the peat mosses of 

 more northern regions exhibit its decaying roots and branches ; and nothing is 

 more common than to meet with trunks of oak, of very large dimensions, in situa- 

 tions now in the highest degree unfavourable to the growth of that tree. Similar 

 remarks apply to other species. But not only do the buried trees reach elevations 

 unattained now by the same natural wood, they are also constantly dug out of 

 peat mosses close to the sea-shore, of a size which rivals, or more frequently 

 surpasses, that of their present representatives in Scotland, even when these are 

 placed in situations most favourable to their growth.f 



Submerged Trees and Peat. — At various points along the sea-coast, observers 

 have noted the occurrence below high- water mark of tree-roots fixed in a soil, 

 and frequently covered over with peat moss. The shores of the Orkney and 

 Shetland Islands, \ and the Inner and Outer Hebrides,§ furnish many interesting 

 examples of these phenomena ; and along the coasts of the mainland || they 

 are equally abundant. The " Submarine Forests" of England have long attracted 

 attention. Few of the maritime counties do not exhibit them.^[ Around all the 

 shores of Ireland drowned peat is of common occurrence. " At numerous points 

 along the south and west coast it is a common practice for country people to go 

 to the sandy bogs at dead low- water of spring tides, and dig turf from under- 

 neath the sand ; and it has been equally noted in similar situations along the 

 western and northern coasts. The stumps and roots of trees in the position of 

 growth are found in this peat."** 



Again, on the further side of the English Channel, sunk forests abound along 

 the coasts of Brittany, Normandy, and the Channel Islands. In those regions, 

 trees have been observed at a depth which " could not have been less than 60 

 feet below high- water." -j-f- The peat mosses of Holland, with their buried trees, 

 are constantly continued outwards, so as to extend below the level of the sea. 

 Thus, both on the east and the west shores of the German Ocean, we meet with the 



* Cybele Britannica, loc. cit. 



f Edin. Phil. Jour. vol. xvii. p. 53. See also Phil. Trans, vol. xxii. p. 980 ; and the Old and 

 New Stat. Aces. Scot, passim. 



I Edin. Phil. Jour. vol. iii. p. 100 ; Sinclair's Stat. Ace. vol. vii. p. 451 ; Barrt's Orkney- 

 Islands ; New Stat. Ace, Orkneys, Sandwich. 



§ Sinclair's Stat. Ace. vol. x. p. 373 ; vol. xiii. p. 321 ; Edin. Phil. Jour. vol. vii. p. 125. 



|| The Caithness coast shows submerged peat with trees, at Lybster and Beiss (from information 

 by my colleague Mr B. N. Peach); for notices of submarine forests and peat, see a Practical Treatise 

 on Peat Moss, p. 150 ; New Stat. Ace. vol. i. pp. 16 and 243 ; Sinclair's Stat. Ace. vol. xvi. p. 556 ; 

 Trans. Boyal Soc. Edin. vol. ix. p. 419. Along the shores of the Firth of Forth drowned peat 

 occurs, as at Largo ; also at several points on the Solway coast. 



% Phil. Trans, vol. xxii. p. 980 ; vol. 1. p. 51 ; vol. Ixxxix. p. 145; Jour. Geol. Soc. vol. vi. 

 p. 96 ; Phil. Jour. April 1828. 



** Jukes' Manual of Geology, 2d edit., p. 686. 



ff Jour. Geol. Soc., vol. iii. p. 238. 



