GEOLOGY OF SOMERSET. 137 
Our peat bogs at the Burtles still retain much of 
the wild character of morass; they have been ex- 
tensively cut for fuel, and now cultivation is gradu- 
ally doing its beneficial work here also. The 
botanist and entomologist still find them interesting 
fields of research, and our friend, Mr. Stradling, has 
informed us of their antiquarian interest. Beds of 
peat occur in the clay pits and other excavations 
near Bridgwater, from twelve to sixteen feet deep, 
and contain bones of many kinds of animals, horns, 
shells, and trunks of trees. Similar animal remains, 
and even pottery, were found by the late Mr. Anstice 
and myself, mixed with sand, flints, grauwacke, 
and other gravels, nearly thirty feet beneath the sur- 
face, at the old canal basin at Huntworth. Our 
alluvial lands must be constantly, though slowly, 
increasing in elevation, as our rocky shores are always 
wasting. Every inland flood brings down from the 
hills new material, and in dry weather, when the wind 
is from the sea, sand is blown from the extensive flat 
beaches at Burnham, Berrow, Weston, &c., against 
the sand hills and to the land beyond. When the 
sun is bright and the breeze favourable, a dried 
stratum of sand is thus taken up and carried off in 
light clouds at intervals of about five or ten minutes. 
When the tide is out, the weather calm, and the 
sun bright, a dense vapour just covers the beach, 
and has all the appearance of water at particular 
parts, producing sometimes the interesting spectacle 
—-mirage. 
t 
