89 



ten miles in length. In the island of Lewis, one of the Hebrides, 

 there is an extensive peat moss, thirty miles long, having its surface 

 but little elevated above that of the sea*. 



Peat appears to have been long in use, as fuel, in different parts 

 of Germany. Thus JEneas Sylvius Piccolominaeus, in 1458, in his 

 History of the Military Transactions of Frederic III. having occa- 

 sion to speak of some part of Friesland, rendered worthy of notice 

 by some interesting military event, describes it as " a smooth and 

 marshy plain ; abounding in grass, but without wood. The inha- 

 bitants supporting their fires by a bituminous turf, mixed with the 

 dried dung of oxen." 



Ludovicus Guicciardinus, who wrote very early on the geography 

 and natural history of Holland, remarks, that the combustible 

 turf called by the names of torff or turf, which abounds in Holland, 

 is of so much consequence as to have had the strongest claim to his 

 attention. 



CuthbertTonstall, Bishop of Durham, in the reign of Henry VIII. 

 notices the very general use of turf, as fuel, in Zealand ; the heavy 

 inconveniences, arising from the smoke of which, he complains of 

 to Erasmus in a very energetic lamentation. If, says he, you remain 

 at home in the city, the smoke of the turf (for, says he, they burn 

 this in the place of wood) fills your nostrils from the surrounding 

 neighbourhood. These, when dug from moist and salt places, how- 

 ever much they may have been dried in the sun, yield a smoke, 

 whilst they burn, which penetrates into your very breast, and at- 

 tacks, at once, your nostrils, head, and chest. 



Turf, it is probable, might be found in most parts of the world : 

 the lowlands of almost every country of Europe possess it, and it 

 particularly abounds in many parts of Holland and of Germany, 

 in Brabant, Transilvania, Groningen, Zealand, Friesland, England, 

 Scotland, and Ireland, and indeed in all the northern parts of Eu- 



* Anderson on Peat-Moss. 

 VOL. I. N 



