714 MR FRANCIS J. LEWIS 
Dirskelpin Moss, Knock Moss, and Anabaglish Moss may be described together, 
being all of the same type and continuous with one another. The depth of these 
mosses varies from 10 feet to over 20 feet, an average depth in the centre being about 
14 feet. In some cases borings were made at short distances from one another from one 
side of the moss to the other, and these showed that the peat occupies large hollows in 
the till. In several places the surface of the moss is broken by long whale-backed ridges 
of Silurian rock. Borings were made round some of these ridges, and the ground was 
found to shelve down steeply at the N.N.E. end, as a depth of more than 20 feet of 
peat was recorded only 70 feet from the edge of the moss; whilst at the 8.8.W. end of 
the ridge the ground shelved much more gradually, as the peat only reached a depth of 
3—4 feet 300 feet from the margin. All these whale-backed hills showed the same feature : 
a deep excavation on the N.N.E. filled with a growth of peat, and, at the S.S.W. end, 
a great accumulation of till covered by very shallow peat. 
The features presented by the borings, and confirmed by sections made along the 
drier margins of the mosses, were as follows :—The mosses everywhere rest upon a stiff 
clay containing in some places numerous nests of sand, the clay being filled with stones 
of all sizes. This forms a fairly level floor, rising steeply towards the margins and 
round the Silurian outcrops. The upper layers of the till contain many rootlets from 
the overlying peat, but otherwise are free from vegetable remains. The peat immediately 
overlying the till (for the first 2 or 3 inches) contains no recognisable plant remains, and 
is frequently banded with thin layers of coarse sand or grit. Above this occurs an un- 
interrupted layer of Betula alba, L., of small size, the largest diameter of wood met with 
being only 10 inches. The wood is much decayed, but pieces of bark are well preserved 
and mixed with decayed leaves. Corylus Avellana, L., and Alnus glutinosa, Gaertn., 
oceur fairly abundantly in many places towards the top of the birch layer, but are not 
found in the very centre of the mosses ; here the only woodland zone present is birch. 
At the same time there is no sign of any sharp separation between the birch zone and 
the hazel and alder, for they appear to merge gradually into one another; but the 
evidence for this must be received with caution, as a zone of wood might easily sink in such 
soft peat without leaving any trace of the operation. Above the birch and hazel layers 
the peat contains much Hqwisetum, sp., with Phragnutes communis occasionally reaching 
a thickness of 4—5 feet. This layer is particularly noticeable in the peat round some of 
the lochans which occur here, and shows that after the passing away of the birch, hazel, 
and alder vegetation, very wet conditions prevailed when most of these mosses were 
covered with swamp, or by a series of shallow lakes. Later still the conditions 
evidently became drier again, for a zone of Pinus sylvestris appears immediately above 
the Equisetum and Phragmites peat. The trees here, unlike the basal birch, are large in 
size, the stools are i situ, and the wood is well preserved and still resinous in smell on 
being broken up ‘The peat round the stools contains abundance of pine cones, twigs, and 
apparently the remains of leaves. The trees stand at a distance of 9-12 feet apart, but 
do not occur in the centre of the mosses but as a fringe round the margins, in much the 
