As indicating the kind of evidence brought forward in support of this argument, the following extracts will suffice:-- "Of old, in the parish of Croy, Inverness-shire, and before the records of the kingdom, there were extensive forests of oak, birch, fir, and hazel, which have been converted into moss, in some places upwards of 20 feet deep. In a moss 400 feet above the level of the sea, oaks of extraordinary size are dug up, some of them measuring from 50 to 60 feet, and of proportional thickness; and even at the height of 800 feet, where the parish joins the Strathdearn hills, large blocks of fir are found, where now, from cold and storm, the dwarf willow can scarcely raise its downy and lowly head."--(_New Stat. Account_, vol. xiv. p. 449.) A writer in the _Old Stat. Account_ (vol. xv. p. 484) referring to moss in the parish of Kilbarchan, Renfrewshire, from 7 to 9 feet deep, says:-- "The soil below is a deep white clay, where has formerly been a forest. The oak is perfectly fresh; the other kinds of timber are rotten. The stumps in general are standing in their original position. The trees are all broken over at about the height of 3 feet, and are lying from south-west to north-east. So, wherever you see a stump, you are sure to find a tree to the north-east. How an oak-tree could break over at that particular place, I never could understand. But we may be allowed to form a conjecture, that before the tree fell, the moss had advanced along its stem and rotted it there." Mr. Aiton, in an excellent introduction to his treatise on Moss Earth, thus writes:[44]-- "Trees of enormous dimensions have grown spontaneously in many parts of Britain, where it would baffle the ingenuity of man to rear a tree to the tenth part of the size. The mosses in all parts of the island abound with trees of much greater dimensions than any now to be found growing in this country. The late Mr. Browning found an oak-tree under a moss in his lands of Benthall, in East Kilbride, of such size and preservation as to floor a garret 20 feet long by 16 wide. The boards, more than an inch in thickness, may still be seen at Benthall. Another oak-tree may be seen there upwards of 60 feet in length. It has evidently been broken at both ends, and the lower end not being completely covered with moss, has rotted so much that the dimensions of the tree cannot now be ascertained, but the upper end is more than 4 feet in circumference.