260 PHYSIOGRAPHY AND GEOLOGY OF THE COASTAL PLAIX PROVINCE. 



called muck. The natural conditions most essential to the formation of 

 peat are restricted access of air, and abundance of water. 



When possessing a good degree of purity and properly prepared peat 

 is a good and efficient fuel and may form the basis of a number of manu- 

 facturing industries. It has been used but little in America for fuel 

 although repeated attempts have been made to so utilize it in Canada and 

 New England. A large use of peat is in agriculture. Perhaps the largest 

 use now made of peat in the United States is in the manufacture of 

 fertilizer filler, which use seems to be a growing one. "WTien used as a 

 fertilizer, peat may be applied directly to the land or it may be used in 

 composts. It is usually considered preferable, however, to compost the 

 peat before its application to the land. Peat is of value as a fertilizer on 

 account of its absorbent properties and nitrogen content, and because it 

 adds to the humus and hence increases the water-retaining capacity of 

 the soil. A great number of uses of peat other than those mentioned have 

 been proposed, some of which have proved of little or no importance. 



The Virginia Coastal Plain contains a very large acreage of swamp lands 

 and some of these swamps contain peat. The most extensive one of these 

 is the Great Dismal Swamp in Virginia and North Carolina, which lies 

 on a fine sandy soil with an approximate slope of about 20 inches to the 

 mile, and is covered by a thick layer of peaty matter. The extent and 

 quality of the peaty matter in the swamps of eastern Virginia are unknown, 

 since these lands have not yet been made the subject of detailed study 

 or investigation. 



The Dismal Swamp has been described in considerable detail by 

 Mr. N. H. Darton*^ in the Norfolk folio, and is given on pages 56 to 58 of 

 this volume. The vegetable accumulations of the Dismal Swamp are 

 described by Darton as follows: 



"The swamps lie in shallow basins in the surface of the general terrace 

 of the Norfolk region. The basins are now filled to the general level of 

 the surrounding country with vegetable accumulations, which have a 

 maximum thickness of about 20 feet. In recent excavations for a gate on 

 the feeder about half a mile east of Lake Drummond there were exposed 

 10 feet of peat filled with roots and tree trunks, lying on 8 feet of clear 

 peat which merged with the overlying beds, and this in turn was underlain 

 b}'' fossiliferous sand of late ISIeocene age. The thickness of the swamp 

 deposits decreases toward the periphery of the present swamp area, but so 



nXorfolk Folio, No. 80, U. S. GeoL Survey, 1902. 



