384 MR J. GEIKIE ON THE BURIED FORESTS AND PEAT MOSSES OF SCOTLAND. 



everywhere in Scotland death and waste have assailed the peat mosses, showing 

 that the decrease of moisture which has brought about this result does not arise 

 from any mere local cause, but is characteristic of the general climate of the 

 country. To this Ave must add the fact, that our peat mosses had begun to 

 moulder away long before anything like the present systems of drainage had been 

 adopted. 



As we proceed from north to south, we find that the peat has not only suffered 

 a larger amount of denudation, but its substance has been pulverised or " con- 

 sumed" in a greater degree. Thus, the peat of England, especially in the southern 

 districts, is more consumed or decomposed than that of the Scottish mosses. In 

 other words, a longer time has elapsed since the English peat ceased to grow, so 

 that having been exposed during this period to the power of the atmosphere, it 

 exhibits stronger marks of waste than the peat of Scotland. The French peat is 

 said to be still more consumed than that of England ; and indeed, it may be re- 

 marked generally of the peat of southern latitudes, that it has crumbled away to 

 a much greater extent than that of more northern countries. 



The change of climate indicated by the wasted aspect of peat moss thus 

 appears to have shown itself first along the southern limits of that forma- 

 tion in Europe. It then slowly extended its influence in a northward direction, 

 meeting in its course with many modifications, such as must arise from local 

 circumstances. Chief among these was the configuration of the land — the 

 peat of low-lying districts dying out more quickly than the mosses of higher 

 levels, where any diminution of moisture is last to be appreciated. In the 

 same manner, the track of the rainy winds on the west and south-west coasts 

 have also marked out a region where we now meet with less waste among 

 the mosses than in those of other districts. But as the effects of such a cosmical 

 change must be so blended with the results brought about by the progress of 

 cultivation, we can do little more than suggest the extreme probability of its 

 existence. As it can be shown that the destruction of our ancient forests has not 

 been primarily due to man, although in the later stages of the process he certainly 

 played an important part, so we may suspect that the change from a humid to 

 a drier climate has also been effected by natural causes,— but man, eagerly 

 following nature, has outstripped her in her work, and so identified this with his 

 own, that it now becomes hardly possible to distinguish the one from the other. 



