of this wild district 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. Old people, however, 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 where they were concealed than on 

 the surrounding morass. Nor does this seem to be 

 a fanciful notion, but consistent with true philosophy. 

 Besides the oak, I have also been shown pieces of 

 fossil wood, oi a paler colour and softer nature, which 

 the inhabitants called fir : but, upon a nice exami- 

 nation, and trial by fire, I could discover nothing res- 

 inous in them ; and therefore rather suppose that 

 they were parts of a willow or alder, or some such 

 aquatic tree. 



This lonely domain is a very agreeable haunt for 

 many sorts of wild fowls, which not only frequent 

 it in the winter, but breed there in the summer ; such 

 as lapwings, snipes, wild ducks, and, as I have dis- 

 covered within these few years, teals. Partridges in 

 vast plenty are bred in good seasons on the verge 

 of this forest, into w^hich they love to make excur- 

 sions : and in particular in the dry summer of 1740 

 and 1 74 1, and some years after, they swarmed to 



such a degree that parties of unreasonable sports- 



18 



