•ffi'S
does not appear that the fir ever grew spontaneously. The oafcis, in that district, to be found every where embedded in themosses. In Dalserf parish, in Lanarkshire, an oak was latelydug up, 65 feet long, which is so straight, and so equal in girth,that it is difficult to determine which is its root end. * * * § In Moss-Flanders, innumerable trees of the same kind occur, f
Even the Hebrides , exposed as they are, to the sea blast, pre-sent venerable remains of ancient forests. ‘ A yew tree, whichgrew on a sea cliff in the stormy island of Bernera, when cutinto logs, loaded a large boat. The island of Mull has ancient-ly been filled with woods. ‘ Though Lewis’ adds Dr Wal-ker, ‘ Is now entirely destitute of timber, there are large trunksof Alder, Birch, and especially of Scots Fir, found in its exten-sive mosses. ’
Atheneeus furnishes us with a very curious document in regardto the size to which trees grew, at a very remote period, on themountains of Britain . The celebrated Archimedes had built aship of a prodigious size, at Syracuse , about 200 years before the-Christian era. ‘ This ship had three masts, of which the se-cond and third were got without much difficulty ; but it was longbefore they could find a tree fit for the first, or main mast. This,at length, was discovered on the mountains of Britain ; andbrought down to the sea coast by machines invented by one Phi-leas Tauromenites, a famou'S mechanic. ’ |]
Of the destruction of these magnificent forests, we are fur-nished with too satisfactory an account, both by history and ob-servation'. Herodian and Dion Cassius inform us that the Em-peror Severus, about A.D. 207, employed the Roman Legions,with the auxiliary troops, and such of the natives as were underhis control, in cutting down the forests of Scotland ; an under-taking in which, the historian tells us, he lost no less than 50,000men. The forest that once covered Moss-Flanders, to the weistof Stirling , appears evidently to have been thus cut down : tlheprostrate trees lye under the moss in every direction, which de-monstrates that they have not been overthrown by storms, whichwould have laid- them down uniformly.
At a later period, John Duke of Lancaster set 24,000 ax.esto work, at one time, to cut down the woods of Scotland . $ Irrthe northern parts of Scotland , the Danes cut down, and burntmany woods. King Robert Bruce , in his expedition againstCummin destroyed some forests near Inverary, *
* Mr Alton’s Inquiry.
f See Stirlingshire Report, p. 40.
$ Dr Walker’s Hebrides , p. 205, 279.
jj Athenaei Deipnos. Lib. V. 10. cited by Dr Henry in lxis history of E>vHtain, B. I. ch. 6.
§ Evelyn on Forest Trees, p. 565.
^ Stat. Acc. voLTIL p. 579.—ib. V. p. 105.
* Fordun, V. 2. See, for a more enlarged account, Alton's Inquiry cion-*'eeroing Moss, p, 52,