(1.) Historical Statements.
Roman historians agree in representing the climate as humid, but so mild that the natives went about in a semi-nude condition, favourable to luxuriant vegetation, and not so cold as that of Gaul. Thus Cæsar expressly states that all kinds of trees grew in Britain, except the fir and the beech, and that the climate was more temperate than in Gaul. Tacitus describes the climate as always damp with rains, and overcast with clouds, without, however, intense cold being even felt. In the speech attributed to Galgacus, previous to the battle of Mons Grampius, he says that their "bodies and limbs were worn out by cutting down woods, draining bogs, stripes, and outrages;" and the same historian, in describing the result of a previous engagement in Fifeshire, in which the Caledonians were beaten, states that "had not the woods and marshes favoured their retreat, this victory in all probability would have put an end to the war." Another writer (Dion Cassius) describes the Caledonians as dwelling in tents, naked, and without shoes; enduring hunger, cold, and all manner of hardships with wonderful patience; and capable of remaining in bogs for many days immersed up to the neck, and without food. In the woods they lived on the bark of trees and roots, and had a certain sort of food always ready, of which, if they took but the quantity of a bean, they would neither be hungry nor dry for a long time after. Herodian also describes them as going about partially naked to prevent the beautiful figures painted on their bodies from being hidden. According to him, they used iron as other barbarians did gold, both as an ornament and sign of wealth. They wore neither coat of mail nor helmet to prevent being encumbered in their marches through bogs and mosses, whence such a quantity of vapours was exhaled that the air was always thick and cloudy.
(2.) The numerous remains of forest trees found in bogs and mosses in localities where, at the present time, no such trees are found to grow.
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.
"At Thriepwood, in Dalserf parish, and county of Lanark, the trunk of an oak-tree 65 feet in length was a few years ago dug from under moss. It was as straight as the mast of a ship, and so equal in thickness at both ends, that it was not easy to say which was the root. Both these trees had grown at 500 feet of altitude above the level of the sea, and on ground on which it would be difficult to rear an oak to the twentieth part of the size.
"Many fir-trees 100 feet in length have been found under moss. But, what is still more surprising, oak-trees 100 feet long were found on draining Hartfield Moss in Yorkshire. They were as black as ebony, and some of them sold one hundred and fifty years ago as high as £15 for one tree. One oak-tree was dug from under that moss, which measured 120 feet in length, 12 feet in diameter at the root, and 6 feet diameter at the top! Twenty pounds sterling was then offered for that single tree. One of the same dimensions, with its bark, would sell now at £300, but no such tree at present exists in Europe....
"But the climate was then also more congenial to the growth of fruits, grapes, etc., as we have seen, and also of grain, than it is now. The records of the Religious Houses show that wheat was paid as a tithe from lands on which human industry could not now raise that species of grain. Wheat was paid annually as a tithe to the Priory of Lesmahagow from lands in that parish, on which that species of grain has not been sown for several centuries past, and where it could not now be raised; where, under the present economy, oats can scarcely be brought to perfection. The minister of Glenluce, in the Statistical Account of his parish, mentions a farm that paid to the monastery of Glenluce twelve bolls of wheat and the same quantity of barley as a tithe. But such is the melancholy alteration that, about thirty years ago, that very farm was set at £12 of yearly rent. Similar instances might be pointed out in many parts of Scotland."