90 



rope : being, in several places, the only fuel which the inhabitants 

 can obtain*. 



Caesalpinus observes, that in CEland, a peninsula in the Nether- 

 lands, a black mud is obtained from the marshes, which, being made 

 into clods, and dried, is used for the purpose of making up fires, 

 being rendered a species of coals -f-. 



Jonas Arngrim, who wrote in 1592 says, that the peat which is 

 dug for fuel in Iceland, is of two kinds ; the one, which is found 

 growing immediately under the surface of the earth, he observes, is 

 light and spongy ; whilst the other, which is much deeper in the 

 ground, and is dug up from the pits, is more heavy and dense J. 



Quado says, that in West Friesland the earth is fatty and bitu- 

 minous ; and that, being dried in the wind, it serves for fuel in- 

 stead of wood ; but is very different from the coal of Namur, Liege, 

 Hanault, &c. 



Libavius || says, the inhabitants of the lower parts of Germany 

 employ for fuel that which they term darry and dorfen, which is, he 

 says, a mass of roots, blended with a bituminous earth. 



Schoockius, who wrote expressly on peat in 1658 ^f, and does not 

 admit its vegetable origin, thinks that Libavius should rather have 

 said, that the bitumen in certain peats is so coloured and diversified 

 as to resemble dried roots. 



Darria, derrie, or darinck, derived from the Danish word dar- 

 ren, signifying to burn, he says, is a substance which, even at that 

 time, was dug in Zealand, and chiefly in Wallachia, for fuel. He 

 describes it as a bituminous matter, thrown on shore by the sea, 

 and which has been afterwards covered by the earth. At one time 

 it was dug, with so much eagerness, for the salt, which, by certain 



* Erasmi Epistol*. lib. iii. t Andr. Caesalpin. lib. .ii. cap. 53. 



J Brevis Commentarius de Islandia, Hoolum. 1592. Lib. iv. cap. 37. 



U Lib. iv. de Origine Rerum. 



^ Martini Schoockii, Tractatus de Turfiis seu Cespitibus bituminosis. GroningaB 5 1658. 



