( 3°o ) 
Some Fifteen Years after, or thereabouts, I had oc- 
cafion to come the fame way ; and call’d to mind the 
Old Woods which I had feen. Then there was not 
fo much as a Tree, or appearance of the Root of any ; 
but in place thereof, the whole Bounds, where the Wood 
had flood, was all over a plain green ground, covered 
with a plain green Mofs. I asked the Country-People, 
who were with me, what became of the Wood, and 
who carried it away ? They told me, no body was at 
the Pains to carry it away ; but that it being all over- 
turn’d from the Roots by Winds, the Trees did lie fo 
ihick and fwarving over one another, that the green 
Mofs ("there, in the Briti/b Language called Fog) had 
over-grOwn the whole Timber 5 which, they faid, was 
occafion'd by the moifture that came down from the 
high Hill, which was above it, and did flagnate upon 
that Plain ; and they faid none could pafs over it, be- 
caufe the Scurf of the Fog would not fupport them. 
1 would needs try it; and accordingly I fell in to the 
Arm-Pits, but was immediately pull’d up by them. 
Before the Year 1 699. that whole Piece of Ground was 
turn’d into a common Mofs; where the Country -People 
are digging Turf and Peats, and continue fo to do. 
The Peats as yet are not of the beft, and are foft and 
fpungy, but grow better and better ; and as I am in- 
form’d, it does now afford good Peats. 
This Matter of Fatt, did difeover the Generation of 
Moffes ; and whence it is, that many Moffes are fur- 
nifh’d with fuch Timber. 
Thefe Highland Woods are ordinarily flored with 
other kind of Timber, as Birch, Alder, Afli, befides 
Shrubs, and Thorns ; yet we never find any of thofe 
Woods remaining in the Moffes. 
What the Reafon may be, That the Firr and Oak do 
not now grow in feveral Countries, where they are 
found fo plentifully in the Moffes, InqnirendHM eft. 
Whilft 
