194 CULTURE AND MANAGEMENT OF OAK, 



certain, if possible, than any of the former, in the well 

 known fact, that remains of oak have been found 

 in our peat-mosses, from time immemorial, down to 

 the present day. This is the case in parts of the 

 country now entirely destitute of any kind of wood, 

 and supposed to he peculiarly unfavourable to its pro- 

 duction. Along the east coast from Aberdeen, to 

 the farthest north point of Caithness, a tract where 

 the rarity of trees is now proverbial, there is not 

 perhaps one such moss in which remains of this na- 

 ture have not, one time or other, been dug up, 

 sometimes in entire trees of large size, sometimes 

 in small fragments, and sometimes in acorns. The 

 same is true, almost without exception, where 

 ever peat-moss occurs. Those who are curious on 

 the subject, will find a variety of instances on re- 

 cord, by consulting the proper articles in Si?' John 

 Sinclair's Statistical Account of Scotland. Se- 

 veral examples have come under my own observa- 

 tion. I recollect having seen, not many years ago, 

 at Crabstone, in the parish of Newhills, within five 

 miles of Aberdeen, a gigantic oak-tree, which was 

 disinterred by some workmen employed in trenching 

 a piece of mossy land, that had not previously been in 

 tillage. The wood of the tree was perfectly fresh, and 

 its trunk so large and weighty, that it had to be cut 



