( it7 ) 



We know that thefe trees lye eight or ten feet below the furface of 

 the Peat, which furface is, in fome places, four feet lower than the fea 

 at low water ; how, then, can it be conceived that thofe trees could 

 have grown in fuch low lands, unlefs we fuppofe that the level of the 

 fea was at that time full twenty feet lower than it is at prefent ? 



To this may be added, what I have myfelf been an eye-witnefs to, 

 that a violent ftorm from the North- Weft has fo agitated that river 

 which we call Hollands Diep, or Haring Vliet, as to tear up from the 

 bottom large portions of a fubftance fimilar to our Peat, but fo light, 

 as to be carried by the waves againft the banks, and there left, fome- 

 times in pieces larger than a cart-load, which fubftance I was told the 

 poorer fort of people carried away for fuel. Now, it is impoftible that 

 this Peat-like fubftance raifed from the bottom of the Haring Vliet, and 

 which, like Peat, is compofed of leaves, fmall fibres of the roots of 

 trees, and other vegetable fubftances (and who knows how deep the 

 bed thereof may be ?) could ever have grown in that place. 



I once faw Peat taken up from the depth of ten feet, in a watery 

 place, where it had never before been dug. I examined the texture of 

 it, and found it in part to confift of an herb called heath, which herb 

 does not grow in our Peat-lands. And I have alfo feen Peat dug up at 

 a confiderable depth imder the fands, not in regular ftrata or beds, but 

 in broken interrupted patches, and fometimes in a large body colle6fed. 

 This Peat I examined, and found that it cohfifted of leaves of trees, 

 the roots of gi-afs, the ftalks of leaves, and very fmall pieces of wood ; 

 in fhort, there is no vegetable fubftance that grows wild of itfelf, but 

 what, upon an accurate inveftigation, will be found among Peat. 



Some years ago, being on a journey at a fmall diftance on this fide 

 of Haerlem, I faw in a meadow by the road fide, a labourer digging in 

 the earth in a cavity as deep as an ordinary man's height ; and, being 

 curious to know what he was taking up, I alighted from my carriage, 

 and found that it was Peat which was laid by in pieces to dry for firing. 



T2 



