402 EUROPEAN AGRICULTURE. 



pure bog-peat to the depth, I have seen in some instances, of 

 ten or twelve feet, and holding water like a sponge. Of course, 

 these must have formed, in some distant period, valleys, or level 

 surfaces, where vast forests once stood, and, falling down, passed 

 into decay, succeeded by those plants which constitute the prin 

 cipal substance of which these beds are composed ; and then 

 afterwards have been elevated above the surrounding country by 

 some great convulsion of nature. These hills are entirely desti 

 tute of trees, and covered only with furze, or heather, or moss. 

 I know of no examples in the United States of deep deposits of 

 peat being found upon elevated summits ; but there are likewise 

 in Ireland, as in the United States, very extensive tracts of level 

 peat-bog shut in, by high grounds, saturated by water, and of 

 unascertained depth. There are likewise in England some 

 extensive peat-bog meadows, of the improvement of which I 

 shall presently treat; but such tracts, within my observation, are 

 not common. 



There are likewise in England immense extents of alluvial 

 soil. The valley of the Thames, for a great part of its extent, is 

 clearly alluvial;- so are the flat lands upon the Humber and its 

 various branches ; so are the immense tracts, denominated fen 

 lands, in Lincolnshire. Bedfordshire, and Cambridgeshire ; so is 

 the beautiful valley of the Trent, and the valley in which York 

 is situated ; so likewise is the rich White Horse Valley, as it is 

 termed, in the county of Berkshire. Some of these are a stiff, 

 adhesive clay, of the most tenacious character ; others a deep, 

 rich loam ; and some of them have been redeemed from the sea 

 by a process called warping, which I shall presently describe. 

 These are composed of what is here called silt, which consists 

 of a very fine sand, and muddy or aluminous matters, held in 

 suspension by the water of the tides, and brought down likewise 

 by the waters of rivers coming from the interior and swollen 

 with rains, which have swept down the cultivated hills, and 

 robbed them of some portion of their riches. These lands are 

 justly deemed some of the most fertile in the kingdom. 



There are likewise extensive tracts of soil resting upon the 

 red sandstone, like some of the soils in New Jersey, producing 

 large crops of the richest herbage in pasture, and fine crops 

 under tillage ; but of the common granitic soils of New England 

 I have met with few examples. There are, however, I believe, 



