PEAT-MOSSES AS MUSEUMS 



fine leaf-mould so radically alter the ground that a forest of 

 Oaks might be possible. 



It is in fact quite likely that most of our Highland and 

 Scotch hills were at one time covered by fine forests of 

 Scotch Fir, of which the Silva Caledonica spoken of by 

 Tacitus was an example. 



There is, moreover, evidence to show that this was the 

 case. There is one strange peculiarity of peat which renders 

 it a most useful substance to antiquarians. 



Anything lost in a peat-moss does not decay away, but 

 remains in a blackened but still recognizable condition for 

 hundreds of years. Not long ago a basket containing the 

 bones of a child was found in a Scotch peat-moss. There is 

 also a story that an English trooper of the fourteenth or 

 fifteenth century, and his horse, were discovered in Lochar 

 Moss, near Dumfries. The man's features were traceable at 

 first, but fell into powder when exposed to the air ; but the 

 weapons, stirrups, etc., were all perfectly preserved. Bones 

 of the extinct Irish elk have often been found. Not merely 

 so, but the piles of lake dwellings and the rough dug-out 

 canoes which were used by the early inhabitants of Britain 

 have been discovered in a great many places. Coins of 

 Roman, medieval, and modern times have been unearthed, 

 and indeed there is no doubt that if Britain is still inhabited 

 two thousand years hence, boots, sardine tins, brass cart- 

 ridges, clay pipes, and other characteristic products of our 

 own days, will be disentombed from the peat by enthusiastic 

 antiquarians, and displayed in museums to admiring crowds 

 of our descendants. 



The reason is quite simple : in peat neither those bacteria 

 which cause ordinary decomposition, nor worms of any kind, 

 are able to exist, so that the material does not decay but 



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