C 169 3 



animals, the vegetable matter increases in such a pro- 

 portion, that the soil approaches to a peat in its na- 

 ture ; and if in a situation where it can receive water 

 from a higher district, it becomes spongy, and per- 

 meated with that fluid and is gradually rendered in- 

 capable of supporting the nobler classes of vegetables. 



Many peat-mosses seem to have been formed by 

 the destruction of forests, in consequence of the impru- 

 dent use of the hatchet by the early cultivators of the 

 country in which they exist : when the trees are fel- 

 led in the out-skirts of a wood, those in the interior ex- 

 posed to the influence of the winds ; and having been 

 accustomed to shelter, become unhealthy, and 

 die in their new situation; and their leaves and 

 branches gradually decomposing, produce a stratum 

 of vegetable matter. In many of the great bogs in 

 Ireland and Scotland, the larger trees that are found 

 in the out-skirts of them, bear the marks of having 

 been felled. In the interior, few entire trees are 

 found ; and the cause is, probably, that they fell by 

 gradual decay ; and that the fermentation and decom- 

 position of the vegetable matter was most rapid where 

 it was in the greatest quantity. 



Lakes and pools of water are some times filled 

 up by the accumulation of the remains of acquatic 

 plants ; and in this case a sort of spurious peat is 

 formed. The fermentation in these cases, however^ 

 seems to be of a different kind. Much more gaseous 

 matter is evolved j and the neighbourhood of moras- 

 ses in which aquatic vegetables decompose, is usually 

 aguish and unhealthy ; whilst that of the true peat, or 



