4 A TREATISE ON THE CONNECTION OF 



even to the drier lands in the vicinity of such fens or 

 mosses. 



The draining, reclaiming, and cultivating, lands so 

 circumstanced, must appear not only important, from the 

 great value of such lands when reclaimed, but likewise 

 from the effects that such, drainage would have on the 

 climate, temperature, and vegetation of the adjacent 

 country. 



Peat is an inflammable substance ; consequently ca- 

 pable of combining with pure air, or oxygen, and of 

 becoming oxygenated ; a process already explained in 

 the preceding part of this Treatise. The surface of peat 

 mosses, or what is most exposed to the action of air, is 

 capable of becoming more oxygenated than the under 

 stratum. 



The oxygenation of peat, and indeed the combination 

 of pure air or oxygen with inflammable substances, 

 renders such substances less inflammable, a process ana- 

 lagous to that of combustion : in both cases saline com- 

 pounds are formed, which are uninflammable. 



It 



