368 MR J. GEIKIE ON THE BURIED FORESTS 



all lie one way, as if overturned by some potent agency they had met their fate 

 at one and the same time.* The direction taken by the fallen trunks corresponds 

 in a notable manner with that of prevailing winds in the regions where they 

 occur ; and hence a large share in the destruction of our woodlands has been 

 attributed to storms of wind. Doubtless, many acres of forest may have been 

 overturned in this way. But we cannot suppose the peculiar position of the 

 buried trunks to be in every instance the result of storms. Trees are usually 

 bent over in the direction of prevailing winds ; and when any cause shall lead to 

 their overthrow, whether it be natural decay or otherwise, the position taken by 

 the falling trunks will be determined by the overhanging weight of their tops.f 



Lightning. — Again, in our own day, large tracts of forest land in the back- 

 woods of America have been dismantled by fire, kindled during a thunder 

 storm. And we may believe that the resinous conifers of the ancient Scottish 

 woods may also have suffered from the same cause. The marks of fire are con- 

 spicuous on the trees of some of our peat mosses. These appearances are to be 

 traced chiefly to the hand of man, but we cannot quite ignore the possible agency 

 of lightning. 



Ice. — It is not unlikely also that our ancient woods may have experienced 

 what are known in America as ice-storms. In winter time the trees of the American 

 forests sometimes become so heavily laden with snow and ice that they are borne 

 to the ground by the pressure. 



Man. — That man has largely aided in clearing the woods is indisputable. 

 Besides the evidence of his hand afforded by the charred wood under peat, we 

 sometimes come upon marks of adze and hatchet. 



The earliest historical accounts of North Britain have afforded abundant food 

 for controversy to antiquarians, but when the geologist has gleaned together the 

 few descriptive remarks which occur here and there, in the pages of Tacitus, 

 Heeodian, and others, he will find that his knowledge of the physical aspect 

 of Scotland does not amount to much that is very definite. He will learn, 

 however, that Caledonia was notorious on account of its impenetrable forests 

 and impassable morasses. But the precise extent of ground covered by these 

 woods and marshes must always be matter of conjecture. The forest land 

 known as Sylva Caledonia? appears to have stretched north of the wall of Seveeus, 

 but south of that boundary large forests must have existed ; indeed, down to 

 much more recent times, many wide districts of Southern Scotland could still 

 boast of their woodlands. Of the nature of those waste plains, described by the 



* Highland Society's Prize Essays, vol. ii. p. 19 (Old Series) ; Rennie's Essays, p. 31 ; Sinclair's 

 Stat. Ace. vols. iv. p. 214; v. p. 131 ; and xv. p. 484; New Stat. Ace. Paisley and Carluke. 

 Vide also for similar phenomena in English and Foreign peat mosses, Phil. Trans, vol. xxii. p. 980 ; 

 Rennie's Essays, loc. cit.; Degner de Turfis, p. 81. 



t Vide Trans. Royal Soc. Edin. vol. iii. p. 269. 



