Natural History of Nova Scotia. 649 



fresh water in the hot season), entangled among the stems of 

 these plants when the water is high, and drying as it falls, 

 forms a considerable quantity of paper, like that from which 

 the hornet makes his nest ; a substance which I have observed 

 to form a large proportion of peat from Ireland, taken from a 

 part of the bog where it had formerly been dug out, and which 

 had again filled up.* When the lake or pond is so far filled 

 up, that the mud is nearly bare in a dry season, the Andro- 

 meda calyculata is the first shrub that grows upon it; bog 

 moss with Indian cups follows, and the Indian tea, rosemary- 

 leaved kalmia [KalmzTz glauca L. var. rosmarinifolia Ph.~], 

 Dutch myrtle, and other bog plants and shrubs, coming in, 

 with a sprinkling of the tough-rooted cotton grasses and sedges, 

 a strong turf is formed, which alternately floats on the water 

 or rests on the mud, according to the moisture or dryness of 

 the season. Many considerable marshes of this description 

 may be found by the sides of lakes which rise with every flood, 

 with the exception of a few spots occupied by small clumps of 

 firs, which will be found, upon removing the moss, to be the 

 sites of old beaver houses. In the great barren plain, in the 

 western part of the province, there are morasses of this de- 

 scription several miles in extent, producing only bog plants 

 and shrubs of a small size, where, in a wet season, the weary 

 traveller sinks, at every step, a foot deep in water, in conse- 

 quence of the bending of the blanket of mossy turf upon which 

 he is walking; and which he can, at pleasure, shake for 30 ft. 

 around, manifestly perceiving the undulation of the water 

 beneath him. It appears to be necessary to the preservation 

 of peat, that it should be always nearly covered with water. 

 When the water sinks below its surface, as it generally does 

 in dry weather, in swamps which have large streams running 

 through them, the upper layer changes to a kind of mould 

 capable of producing grass and alder, and the swamps become 

 natural meadows, which are mostly of a poor quality on stony 

 vitriolic soils, but better where the upland is a sandy loam, 



[* At the meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of 

 Science, held at Dublin in August, 1835, Mr. Robert Mallet, 94. Capel 

 Street, Dublin, showed a beautiful white material, prepared from turf, 

 which was declared by a paper-maker to be perfectly fitted for the manu- 

 facture of paper. {The Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal, Oct., 1835, 

 vol. xix. p. 398.) In this place is the following relative additional inform- 

 ation : — " The upper stratum of turf, which covers immense tracts in Ire- 

 land, consists of layers. It is acted on by water to separate the leaves ; 

 then by caustic potash, or soda; then by an acid. It is then bleached by 

 chloride of lime. During the process, a substance is obtained, possessing 

 the odour of camphor, mixed with that of turpentine, which is fluid at 290° 

 Fahr. The upper stratum of turf may also be employed for millboards, 

 after being soaked in glue, and pressed by a hydraulic press."] 



