1891.] Raised peat-bogs in New Brunswick. 125 



size, of this raised character, the areas of which vary from a 

 few up to three hundred acres, the total acreage of all sixteen 

 being estimated at about eleven hundred acres. They vary 

 in height from a few feet up to as much as forty or fifty. 

 They are all comprised within a limit of about thirty miles, 

 between L'Etang Harbor and Musquash; and although a care- 

 ful search has been made for others in other parts of New 

 Brunswick and in Maine, none has been discovered. They 

 are all near the coast, with only two or three exceptions 

 being within two or three miles of the salt water, only one of 

 them being as far as four miles away. Very few of them have 

 any level bog portion. They are all entirely clear of trees or 

 bushes, and composed of clear, clean Sphagnum. In one or 

 two cases Mr. Boardman has bored to the bottom of the smal- 

 ler ones and found them underlaid by clean gravel; in other 

 cases the boring apparatus, adapted to go down twelve feet, 

 did not reach bottom, and it brought up in all cases only close 

 clean carbonized peat-moss, with no trace of muck. At Mus- 

 quash one of the largest, though not a very high bog, is being 

 extensively worked lor the moss, which has been found ex- 

 ceedingly valuable as a bedding for horses and cattle. The 

 workings have there gone to a depth of forty-four feet 

 without finding bottom or muck impurities. The great purity, 

 freedom from decay, antiseptic and absorbent powers of the 

 carbonized moss promise to create a local industry of much 

 importance; and practical men are there putting energy and 

 capital into mining and experimenting with it. 



Lest my readers, habituated to the appendage of a theory 

 to all statements of facts, should experience a shock by it 

 absence, I hasten to be in the fashion and offer my "theory" 

 of their origin. I can speak personally only of the Seely's 

 Cove bog, but possibly what is true of it may apply to other 

 also. I think its origin and growth are connected with the 

 great prevalence in this region of large, clear, cold springs. 

 In fact there occur a few miles away single springs which are 

 large enough to give origin to large brooks, and the water is 

 invariably very cold and clear. A most famous spring of this 



1 1 



character occurs on the line of railway a few miles from St. 

 George and smaller ones are abundant everywhere. The 

 purest water I ever saw, even in New Brunswick, where so 

 many streams are crystal-clear, was in a spring brook within 

 a mile or two of this bo£. Now it is noticeable that the upper 



