OS1/28/8/74

Continued entries/extra info

[Page] 74
[continued from page 73]

------- Examiners replies to each of the underlined portions.

Mosses, Fuel. - A short half mile to the east of the town, in the inflection
of the bank, there is a vast accumulation of drift peat covered over,
by a layer of soil. Somewhat more than 30 years ago, it was laid open
by a waterspout to the depth of 12 feet, when it was discovered to be com-
posed mostly of vegetable remains. Huge trees from two to four feet in
diameter were seen to stretch across the bottom of newly formed ------- no name for this
chasm, or to protrude from its sided. The soil in which they were im ------- chasm.
bedded is a black solid peat Moss, composed most of bark and
branches; and in Masses of a fetid unctuous earth. It is not yet
four years since there were dug out of the sides of the chasm, three
huge oaken planks, which had evidently been fashioned by the hands
of man; and in the bottom there were found, about 14 years before,
fragments of the bones and horns of deer, and the forn of an elk.
In the upper part of the parish there was a much more extensive Moss, ------- No name
which before the opening of the coal trade with Newcastle, supplied the
place with fuel, but it gradually wore out.
Civil History. - The celebrated Macbeth makes his first appearance
in history as Thane of Cromarty; but we are acquainted with only the
fact. In a later age, the hill directly behind the town was the scene, ------- no information can be got
says tradition, of one of Wallace's victories over the English; and a few ------- regarding this conflict.
shapeless hillocks which may still be seen among the trees and bushes
that now cover the eminence, were raised, it is said, over the slain.
A still more ancient field of battle is pointed out on a moor in the ------- site of Battlefield shewn
upper part of the parish. It abounds in Tumuli and little heathy ------- no Tumuli to be seen at place
ridges which resemble the graves of a churchyard, and towards ------- as this moor is now a thicK fir wood and partly cultivated.
its eastern extremity there is a huge pile of stones, Known by the people
of the place as the grey-cairn; but the conflict, of which only these ------- Written & described
vestiges remain, seems to have taken place, in a remot and misty
period, ere the ingenuity of man had taxed itself to record the ravages
of his fiercer passions. There was a second cairn on the Moor, which, ------- Site of Cairn
about 30 years ago, was carried away for building by a farmer of ------- shewn
the parish, and there were found on its removal human bones of a ------- vide - name sheet.
gigantic size; among the rest, a skull sufficiently capacious, ac-
cording to the description of one of the labourers, to contain "two lippies
of bear.
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