AND PEAT MOSSES OF SCOTLAND. 379 



In hill mosses, where the buried trees are of small size, the bark, when pre- 

 served, not infrequently adheres all round the stems, as if the mosses had been 

 enabled to cover over the prostrate trees before decomposition had well begun * 

 Again, both in high and low-level mosses, the stools of trees have not uncom- 

 monly retained their bark, even when the trunks and branches in their neigh- 

 bourhood have greatly decayed. The wet plants seem thus to have protected the 

 under portion of the stem, while at the same time they killed the tree. When 

 the main mass of the trunk eventually gave way, it fell to the ground stripped of 

 its bark. But upon this last appearance much stress cannot be laid, because we 

 should expect that when old age shall overtake a tree, its lower portions will be 

 the last to go ; and consequently, long after the other parts of the trees have 

 mouldered down, the stools might still resist decay, and by and by come to be 

 buried in a good state of preservation. 



It is well known that the stools or stumps in many mosses are frequently all 

 of one height. When the overthrow of the trees has evidently been the result of 

 natural causes, this appearance is inexplicable unless we call in the aid of the 

 bog mosses in the manner stated. The old statist of the parish of Kilbarchan, 

 in Renfrew, tells usf of the buried trees in the mosses of his district, that " the 

 stumps are standing in their original position. The trees are all lying from south- 

 west to north-east. " How an oak tree," he says, " could break over at that parti- 

 cular place I never could understand. But we may be allowed to form a 

 conjecture, that before the tree fell, the moss had advanced along its stem, and 

 rotted it there." 



In those mosses where the rooted stumps are of unequal height, we may 

 account for their overthrow in the same manner. In the case of the Kilbarchan 

 trees, wind may have been the immediate cause of their downfall. But when, 

 left to themselves, the doomed trunks were no longer able to support their own 

 weight, and began to give way, they would not all do so at the same time. 

 Some species might die and fall to ruins, while others still lived on, and the more 

 massive trees would long tower over their less sturdy brethren. As the mosses 

 were all the while adding to their thickness, the trunks, as they successively 

 yielded, would break off at different levels, while their fallen portions would be 

 buried at slightly different depths, the pressure of the fallen trees tending to 

 squeeze down the soft underlying moss. 



Nay, it has even happened that mosses have overtopped the trees which they 

 have killed. In the moss of Curragh, Isle of Man, large trees have been met with 

 standing erect, with as much as 20 feet of peat above them. The same pheno- 



* It must be remarked, however, that a large proportion of the trees here referred to consists 

 of birch, the bark of which is usually obtained in a good state of preservation, although the wood 

 itself may have entirely decayed. 



f Sinclair's Stat. Ace. vol. xv. p. 484. 



VOL. XXIV. PART IT. 5 K 



