622 



Professur L. C. 3Iiall, 



[Feb. 18, 



but the Spliagnum swamps play the leading part, especially in 

 starting new growths of peat. If we walk carelessly over the moor, 

 we now and then step upon a bed of Sphagnum. We have hardly 

 time to notice its pale green tint and the rosy colour of the new 



growths before all close observa- 

 tion is arrested by the cold 

 trickle of water into the boots. 

 The piactised rambler takes 

 care to keep out of the Sphag- 

 num swamps altogether, know- 

 ing that he may easily sink to 

 the knees or further. Sphagnum 

 sucks up water like a si)onge, 

 and if you gather a handlul, 

 you will be suiprised to see how 

 much water can be squeezed out 

 of it. This water abounds in 

 microscopic life ; Amoelte and 

 other Ehizopofls, Diatoms, In- 

 fusoria, Nematoids, Eotifers 

 and lhe like can be obtained 

 in abundance by squeezing a 

 little Sphagnum fresh from the 

 moors.* As the stems of Sphag- 

 num grow U2:)wards, they die at 

 the base, and form a brown 

 mass, which at length turns 

 black, and in which the micro- 

 scope reveals characteristic 

 structural details, years, per- 

 haps centuries, after the tissues 

 ceased to live. 



An old Sphagnum moss is 

 sometimes a vast si)ongy accu- 

 mulation of peat and water, 

 rising higher in the centre than 

 on the sides, and covered over 

 by a thin living crust. The 

 interior may be half-liquid, and 

 when the crust bursts after heavy rain, the contents of a hillside 

 swamp now and then pours forth in an inky flood, deluging whole 

 parishes. In 1697 a bog of forty acres burst at Charleville, near 

 Limerick. In 1745 a bog burst in Lancashire, and speedily covered 

 u space a mile long and half a mile broad. A bog at Crowbill on the 



Fio. 1. — leafy branch of Sphagnum, 

 magnified ; one leaf of ditto, further 

 magnified. 



* It is interesting to note that the same abundance of animal life characterises 

 the mosses of Spitzln-rgen, where not a few of the very same species are found. 

 (U. J. Sooiirliekl, "Noii-mariue Fauna of Spitzbergcn, " ' Troc. Zoul. tSoc' 1897). 



