( ) 
V. A Letter from Dr. Hans Sloane, S. Seer, 
to the L\igbt Honourable lie Earl of Cromertie, 
in Anjwer to the foregoing Letter } &c. 
y[y Lord , 
I Had the Honour to receive your Lordfhip’s very 
obliging and inftrufting Letter, relating to Turf 
Boggs, or Mcfifes in Scotland, and the Wood found in 
them : which T have communicated to the Royal Society, 
who commanded me to return your Lordfifip their 
moft humble Thanks. I have feen many fuch in the 
North of Ireland , and know your Lordthip’s Account 
of them to be very exa £fc aud true. I have likewife 
been an Eye-witnefs there, that when the Turf diggers 
have come to the bottom, or firm Ground, by having 
dug out all the Earth proper to make Turf or Peat, and 
come to the Chy or other Soil, by draining off the 
Water, that then there have appeared Roots of FirrTrees, 
with their Stumps (landing a Foot or two ftrait uprighr, 
and their Branches fpread out on every fide horizontally 
on that firm Surface $ as if that had been formerly the 
outward Face of the Ground, and place of their Growth. 
And I remember to have obferv’d thefe Roots to be 
fometimes fo near one another, as that their Branches 
were, as it were, matted, grew over, and gave place to 
one another, as we every Day fee in Roots of Trees where 
they grow too clofe. I faw once the body of a Firr 
Tree dug up fo big, as to be judg’d fit for the main 
Poft of a Wind-Mill , which was difeover’d, as many 
them, which are not found in digging Turf, are, by 
the. 
