ON THE PLANT REMAINS IN THE SCOTTISH PEAT MOSSES. wig 
action: the bark on the stems and twigs being quite uninjured, and the nuts in an 
excellent state of preservation, and, further, numerous roots of the same trees are to 
be found running through the peat. There is, then, every indication that the peat 
immediately overlying the clay represents the primitive vegetation covering the surface 
of these raised beaches. The drifted pine and oak in the clay underlying the Moss of 
Cree also shows that the climate inland was not less favourable to the tree growth than 
that at the coast, and much of the drifted timber must be débris from woodland which 
existed inland during the period of land elevation, 
The Denudation of the Peat.—The sections already described show that considerable 
changes have taken place in the distribution of the vegetation during the growth of the 
mosses. The youngest peat in each district hitherto examined is formed of plants 
indicating extremely wet conditions, such as Sphagnum and Scirpus; but these plants, 
although still represented in the vegetation, do not occur in such profusion as they are 
found in the peat, but occupy isolated patches in the wettest spots, or occur mixed with 
other plants indicating somewhat drier conditions. Of the areas examined, the lowland 
mosses of Wigtonshire appear to be the only mosses in which peat is forming at the 
present day. These mosses are flat, badly drained, and are still dominated by large 
areas of Sphagnum, Scirpus, and Eriophorum. These features are also reproduced on the 
peat-covered ground of the flat-topped hills, plateaus, and gently-sloping moorlands 
of such districts as the Northern Pennines and Stainmore in Westmorland. The peat in 
these latter districts, however, nearly always shows traces of wasting, the greater rainfall 
and freedom of drainage favouring denudation. The peat of the hill-sides, although con- 
taining thick Sphagnum, Scirpus, and Eriophorum beds, is no longer clothed with these 
plants but with a much drier type of vegetation, and denudation has evidently gone on 
here for a long period. In the Moorfoot Hills and Tweedsmuir, many of the steepest 
nill-sides are thickly covered with peat; but this is only the remnant of what was once a 
much greater covering, both thicker and larger in extent. GrrKIE (13) has discussed 
the general features of denudation to be met with in Western Europe, and there is little 
to add to the account given in his paper. 
The phenomena are too universal to be entirely accounted for by drainage operations ; 
these may, indeed, accelerate the wasting of the peat in some districts, but cannot 
account for it in all. Furthermore, the peat on the eastern side of England and S. 
Scotland is denuded to a much greater extent than that in the western districts—ée., 
the wasting began earlier, and is more rapid in those districts having a smaller rainfall, 
other factors, such as the slope of the ground and elevation above sea-level, being equal. 
Comparing the peat of the Moorfoot Hills with that in the Galloway district, the amount 
of denudation is much greater in the former ; for, although the peat is wasting away over 
most of the Galloway mosses, the shrinkage is not nearly so marked as it is on the 
Moorfoots. The same difference in the amount of denudation can also be seen in England 
on comparing the hills of the Lake district with the eastern slopes of the Pennines. 
Although the topography of Western Cumberland and Westmorland is not favourable 
