[ganoxg] peat bogs 01- NEW BRUNSWICK ISS 



The tops of the stumj^sin the ditchevsare alwjiys irregular and Idticdc- 

 <3ned, and said by workmen to be burnt. 1 sent pieces from two of them, 

 taken by myself from a depth of 8 feet, to Professor Penhallow. of 

 Mc<Till University, who has had the kindness to examine them, with the 

 following result : The two specimens were Pinm strobus and Lari.r 

 Americana. " The superficial discoloration of the latter was wholly 

 the i-esult of decay, in part a discoloration of the membranes, but more 

 particularly due to the great numbers of ver}' dark and large mycelia. 

 There is no evidence whatever of the action of tire." These facts, 

 together with what we may observe on the margins of the bogs, 

 makes clear the process of killing of the trees by the moss which is over- 

 flowing them. As the moss advances over the roots of the trees, these 

 are able to hold their own for a time, or until the moss has advanced some 

 distance up their trunks ; the cutting off of the oxygen then kills them 

 and decay begins at the surface of the moss and goes on until the trees 

 fall, while the parts under the moss are preserved by the antiseptic quali- 

 ties of the bog water. The same process is illustrated by the surveyors' 

 stakes on the Lepreau bog, set up 40 or 50 years ago. Above the 

 surface they are weather- heated and lichen-covered ; at the bog surface 

 they are neai'ly decayed through, while under the moss they are as fresh 

 and hard as if cut yesterday. There has been some difference of opinion 

 as to the cause of the preservative qualities of the bog. It has been con- 

 sidered to be due to the ])resence of germicidal ulmiates. (Warming, 

 (21); but Friih (Ta) considers this not jjrovon, and that most of 

 the preservative effects could be produced simph* by exclusion of oxygen. 

 But lately it has been shown by Stutzer and Burri (20) that peat powder 

 has a germicidal action on the cholera bacillus. 



The comparât ivelj' homogeneous structure of these bogs from to]i to 

 above the bottom, makes it plain that they have been exposed to no such 

 alternations of climate as have left traces in many of those of Europe. 

 In Scandinavia, for example, across section of the bogs sliows one, two, 

 or three layers of stumps, separated by strata of jîeat of considerable 

 thickness. The best examples, as given by Blytt (26), who has been the 

 most careful student of these questions, show above the bottom three 

 layers of stumps and four of peat, and the man}' plant-remains preserved 

 with the stumps allow of the determination of the flora, and hence to 

 some extent of the climate during the different periods, Blytt considei-s 

 that these show the alternation of moister with drier periods since the 

 glacial period, the trees forming during the dry times. Many bogs, how- 

 ever, contain but two, or even one. layer of stumps, and Blytt has shown 

 (2a) that the number depends on their height above sea-level. The land 

 is there rising, and the lower and newer bogs have the fewer layers, 

 because they have been the shortest time above the .sea level, and hence 

 exposed to fewer of the altei-nations of climate. The absence of layers of 



