500 Mr. Hens low’s Supplementary Observations to 
These curraghs exist both in the low lands and on the tops and 
sides of mountains, are very variable in their depth, and in most of 
them are found trees of a considerable magnitude, principally oak and 
fir ; hazels also, with their nuts, are common, sometimes ash, walnut 
and black alder are met with, and in one instance holly has been 
found in a mountain curragh, tolerably green, but rotten and 
incapable of bearing exposure to the atmosphere. These trees 
never assume the appearance even of a partial conversion to charcoal, 
but the more they lose their original structure, the looser and 
softer they become. The oak is frequently tinged of a deep black 
colour, and is liable to split and crack when brought to the air, 
unless carefully seasoned by a gradual exposure ; a large trunk will 
require two or three years training before it can be wrought with 
any degree of safety for purposes of ornament, but will then admit 
a polish no way inferior to ebony. 
Towards the north the trees lie in general upon a bed of clay ; 
some in the deeper curraghs are still erect ; a few are torn up, but 
the generality are broken off about two or three feet from the roots, 
and are disposed parallel to each other, with their heads lying 
towards the north-east ; any casual deviation from this position 
may be attributed to some obstacle, as the branches having changed 
the direction of their fall. The smaller boughs have either totally 
disappeared or lie crushed together in one mass. 
This general disposition of the trees was long ago noticed by 
Sacheverill and Bishop Wilson, and is still fully believed to exist by 
the inhabitants, but I had no opportunity of examining this myself. 
Between twenty and thirty years ago, during a violent storm, 
the sea laid bare a forest, about midway between high and low 
water-mark in Poolvash Bay, which had been covered with sand. 
It remained thus exposed for two or three days, and was seen by 
