26 



NATURAL IIISTOllY 



but is somewhat diversified with hills 

 and dales, without having one standing 

 tree in the whole extent. In the bot- 

 toms, where the waters stagnate, are 

 many bogs, which formerly abounded 

 with subterraneous trees : though Dr. 

 Plot says positively,* that there never 

 were any fallen trees hidden in the 

 mosses of the southern counties." But 

 he was mistaken : for I myself have seen 

 cottages on the verge of this wild dis- 

 trict, whose timbers consisted of a black 

 hard wood, looking like oak, which the 

 owners assured me they procured from 

 the bogs by probing the soil with spits, 

 or some such instruments : but the peat 

 is so much cut out, and the moors have 

 been so well examined, that none has 

 been found of late.f Besides the oak, I 



* See his Hist, of Staffordshire. 



t Old people have assured me, that on a Winter's 

 morning they have discovered these trees, in the 

 bogs, by the hoar frost, which lay longer over the 

 space were they were concealed, than on the sur- 



