342 PEAT. 



ultimately a meadow, just as the ordinary marsh plants 

 do in the other situations. And as fresh water marl is 

 produced in the one case, so do beds of maritime shells 

 and fragments alternate with the peat in the other; as 

 alternations of mere sand or mud are equally obvious 

 of explanation. It is in Holland alone, as far as I know, 

 that some of the deeper peat is derived from Fuci, such 

 as the serratus and nodosus; and the Zostera oceanica 

 has been found in Somersetshire with submerged wood. 

 I have adopted the word Transported for the last va- 

 riety of peat ; and, when consolidated, it is the most 

 perfect, since it consists of the powder of this substance, 

 deposited by water, in cavities. Hence it is frequent 

 in mountainous situations, in small patches : but I am 

 not aware of any large tract in Britain, except that 

 produced, by the celebrated eruption of the Solway 

 Moss; though it is said to be common in many parts 

 of Europe. 



On the Generation of Peat. 



It is easy to trace the progress from the vegetable to 

 peat, in the sections made for procuring fuel ; consist- 

 ing in a regular gradation from the organic body, 

 through the half decomposed vegetable matter, to that 

 solid mass in which all those traces have disappeared. 

 This is easily done in the peat of lakes and marshes at 

 least; though, in all cases, the change consists in a pro- 

 gressive decomposition, of which the last result is a 

 powder; being, under the drainage of declivities or 

 peculiar exposure, the heath soil of gardeners, as, under 

 water, it is the black mud of bogs. And this, being 

 dried, is an elastic substance, resembling wood in all 

 but texture; forming the best fuel, but being the least 

 fit for cultivation: while the various modifications de- 

 pend on the generating plants, the degree of decompo- 



