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able to its growth. Of course, since this peat-moss was drained, 

 some years ago, its growth has ceased. The same occurs wherever 

 draining has been carried on to any extent. As soon as the 

 moisture is drawn off, the growth of the peat-moss ceases, and the 

 bulk or depth begins to decrease rapidly. 



Another local case of great interest occurs on what is known as 

 Bowness Flow. The formation of peat moss there is of very great 

 depth, and contains a large body of water, as the Solway Junction 

 Railway Co. found out to their cost, when they made their line of 

 railway over it. Yet close at hand, surrounded on every side by 

 the treacherous moss, there is a farm-house standing high and dry 

 on a hill, rising like a cone out of the moss. This high ground is 

 the Glacial Drift of the district, and the moss around no doubt 

 lies on a bed of the same, but at a lower level. Buried trees are 

 of common occurrence in peat-mosses. They have been found 

 with their trunks standing erect and their roots fixed in the subsoil, 

 clearly showing that they have grown on the very spot where 

 found. It is mentioned in Sir Charles Lyell's "Principles of 

 Geology," that in the Isle of Man vast trees have been discovered 

 standing firm on their roots, although covered by peat moss to a 

 depth of eighteen or twenty feet. It has also been observed in 

 Scotland, by Walker and others, that trees found in riiosses which 

 lie in low regions are larger than those found in mosses at a 

 higher , level — from whicli it has been inferred that the trees grew 

 on the spot, as they would naturally attain their greatest size at 

 lower and warmer levels. 



The leaves and fruits are commonly found imbedded in the 

 peatmoss along with the parent trees; for example, the leaves 

 and the acorns of the oak. These changes from a forest of trees 

 to a peat-moss have been often brought about by trees falling, and 

 causing a stagnation of water, and thereby favouring the growth 

 and decay of the plants already referred to. 



Many of the great peat-mosses of this county date at least as far 

 back on the Neolithic Period, as is evidenced by the oecurrence of 

 stone implements in them; one such, now preserved in the British 

 Museum,, being founds in. th$ pieat-miosd at Bbw^ess. Yet, Although ' 



