Origin of the Mosses. 5 7 



turies would pile up on the surface of the once dry ground, 

 a heap many yards in vertical thickness of half-decayed, 

 half-living heath and moss, with sundews, cotton-sedges, 

 and asphodels on the top. The branches of the trees 

 drowned and entombed at the beginning, would remain 

 where they fell, slowly decaying, but retaining their 

 character well enough to be recognised, and hence 

 wherever a moss is now drained, and portions of the 

 original deposit are dug out, there are generally found 

 mixed with it branches and fragments that in a 

 measure may be likened to fossils. Carrington Moss, in 

 parts where drained, is strewed with such bits of the 

 silver birch, declared by the shining whiteness of the 

 bark. The trees that these bits belonged to no doubt 

 grew tall and leafy on the spot that is now their 

 sepulchre and memorial. Flowers and seeds of bog 

 plants are also found low down in the moss, almost as 

 fresh as if newly fallen. In the middle, these vast 

 vegetable tumuli are often twenty or thirty feet deep. 

 In any part a walking-stick may be plunged in for its full 

 length, and though by stepping and standing on the 

 denser tufts of heather, it is quite easy to walk about 

 dryshod, it is quite as easy by uncarefulness, especially 

 after wet weather, to be in a pool of water up to the 

 ankle in a few minutes. There is no danger in walking 

 upon the mosses, merely this little risk of getting wet- 

 footed, which is more than compensated by the curious 

 objects that may be found upon them. In winter and 

 dull weather they are desolate enough, but on a summer 



