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fheJiigK antiquity of many of our peat-moss^ is beyond a doubts it 

 is equally certain that others now occupy large tracts of country in 

 these islands where there were none at, all when the Romans first 

 set foot here. As an instance may be mentioned Hatfield Moss, 

 in Yorkshire, which appears to have been a forest eighteen hundred 

 years ago. Roman roads have been discovered buried beneath a 

 depth of ten or twelve feet of peat ; showing that the peat has 

 formed to this depth since the Roman Period. 



The overthrow of a forest of Scotch firs in Ross-shire, by a 

 storm, in the ryth century, may be said to have furnished one of 

 the best modern examples of the rate of formation of a peat-moss. 

 It is said that in less than half a century from the date of the 

 storm, the inhabitants dug peat on the site of the forest. In that 

 case the growth, no doubt, was exceptionally rapid, on account of 

 all the circumstances being unusually favourable.' The water that 

 has stagnated in contact with peat contains in solution, according 

 to Liebig, a substance that possesses the power of absorbing 

 oxygen from everything with which it comes in contact; this may 

 be one of the causes of the barrenness of peat-mosses. On the 

 removal of the stagnant water by drainage the air obtains admission 

 into the soil, and such portions of vegetable matter as are still 

 capable of further decay are enabled to undergo more complete 

 decomposition, and thus the agricultural quality of the soil begins 

 at once to improve. 



At the bottom of mosses there is sometimes found a cake, or 

 pan, of Hydrous Peroxide of Iron, or Bog Iron Ore. The bog-oak 

 so often found dyed black in peat-mosses owes its colour chiefly to 

 the action of this mineral upon the tannin. The wonderful anti- 

 septic properties of peat may be partly owing to the presence of 

 this Oxide of Iron as well as to that of the tannin. 



Oak timber is often found in peat-mosses in a condition so 

 perfect, even after having been buried for centuries, that the grain 

 is as fine as ever, and the wood is capable of lasting longer even 

 than wood newly cut from the forest. 



We have some beautiful examples of bog-oak in this neighbour- 



