I9II-] STEVEXSOX— FORMATION OF COAL BEDS. 607 



Rasenmoor is not always apparent as either one may be very thin 

 and the other very thick. In his later, great work on the Swiss 

 moors, Friih has described with much detail all the Swiss deposits 

 and he has offered generalizations which will be considered in 

 another connection. 



It had been suggested by some observers that the tree trunks 

 found in the bogs had been drifted into the depressions, but Friih 

 asserts without qualification that they are in place. The condition 

 is wholly normal. A. Geikie,^^** after noting the differences in phys- 

 ical structure as well as in vegetation shown by successive portions 

 of a bog, says that remains of trees are common. Some are em- 

 bedded in soil underneath the bog; others are in the heart of the 

 peat, proving that the trees lived on the mossy surface and finally 

 were enclosed in the growing peat. This is illustrated by a sketch 

 of a peat-moss in Sutherland. J. Geikie"'' has given much informa- 

 tion respecting the Scottish bogs but it will suffice to cite only his 

 later work. The bogs have yielded many species of trees, all of 

 them indigenous. The trees are in situ, each rooted in the kind of 

 soil preferred by living examples. There are few acres of lowland 

 bog in which trees have not been found. They occur even in the 

 Hebrides, where trees now are practically unknown. Occasionally, 

 more than one forest bed is present. At Strathcluony, three tiers 

 of Scotch fir were seen, separated by layers of peat. Several tiers 

 were exposed in a railway cutting across the Big Moss ; one of stand- 

 ing fir trees with branching roots at 6 feet below the surface, a 

 second at 12 feet and a third at 4 feet lower; so that, counting the 

 surface growth, four diiferent forests have existed there since the 

 bog began. 



Aher,^-*' in the Bog reports, says that trees in the Irish bogs 

 " have generally 6 or 7 feet of compact peat under their roots, which 

 are found standing as they grew, evidently proving the formation 

 of the peat to have been previous to the growth of the trees." On 



^** A. Geikie, " Text-book of Geolog\-," 3d Ed., London, 1893, pp. 478-480. 

 "' J. Geikie, " The Great Ice Age,'' 3d Ed., London, 1895, pp. 286-293, 303. 

 '^ Cited by S. S. Haldeman, in 2d Ed. of R. C. Taylor's "' Statistics of 

 Coal," Philadelphia, 1855, p. 169. 



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