STEVENSON— INTERRELATIONS OF THE FOSSIL FUELS. 79 



peat grows over the trees which it has killed. A moss on the Isle 

 of Man shows large trees, erect in place, with 20 feet of peat over 

 them. 



In 1837, the officers of the Ordnance Survey^"^ reported that the 

 lowest layer of fir trees overlies 3 to 5 feet of turf ; but not so with 

 the oaks, as their stumps are commonly found resting on the 

 gravel or on small hillocks of gravel and sand, which so often stud 

 the surfaces of bogs. 



Reade^"* has shown that a railway cutting through Glazebrook moss 

 exposed 18 feet of peat containing, in a thickness of 3 to 4 feet 

 near the base, remains of trees and branches embedded in the peat. 

 When the peat has been removed, one sees the oak and birch stools 

 rooted in the underclay. A fine overturned tree with roots at- 

 tached was exposed. It was 46 feet long and 3 feet in diameter 

 just above the root. 



Skertchly's"^ observations are equally to the point. In describ- 

 ing conditions in the Fenland counties of England, he says that 

 trees are to be found in the peat everywhere, but that Digby and 

 Bourn for the north and near Ely for the south are the most con- 

 venient localities for study. At these places, the trees rooted in situ 

 are mostly oaks and are often of gigantic size ; in not a few in- 

 stances, the stems are 70 to 80 feet long and clear to the branch, 

 distinct evidence of forest growth. In one moor he examined an 

 overturned tree, which was 36 feet long with maximum diameter 

 of 30 inches. Bark was preserved on the underside of the tree, but 

 was carbonized and it crumbled into cuboidal fragments. In 

 another fen, oaks are numerous and all are broken off at 2 to 3 feet 

 from the ground, that is at the top of the peat. Some birches were 

 here but only the bark remains ; a few elms also, which were 



102 " Ordnance Survey and Report of the County of Londonderry," cited 

 by R. C. Taylor, " Statistics of Coal," 2d ed., 1855, p. 169. 



" It is a very remarkable fact, though very common, that successive layers 

 of stumps and trees, in the erect position and furnished with all their roots, 

 are found at distinctly different levels and at a small vertical distance from 

 each other." 



^0* T. M. Reade, " On a Section through Glazebrook Moss, Lancashire," 

 Quart. Journ. Gcol. Soc, Vol. 34, 1878, pp. 808, 810. 



i°5 S. B. J. Skertchly, " Geology of the Fenland," pp. 158-162, 167. 



