91 



processes, it was made to yield, that a strong law was passed, to pre- 

 vent the farther digging for this substance, lest the shore should be 

 SQ weakened, that it would not be able to resist against the violence 

 of the waves. In the year 1515, however Charles V. harassed by 

 the petitions of the poor, who had no other means of obtaining fuel, 

 was again obliged to permit it to be dug. 



Mr. Tooke informs us, that in Siberia, there are great plenty of 

 morasses, and of various magnitudes. Thus the northern verge of" 

 Siberia, towards the shores of the Frozen Ocean, for several hundred 

 versts in width, is one prodigious watery morass, grown over with 

 moss, and entirely destitute of wood, and which, in summer, is 

 only thawed to the depth of about a span *. In the interior of the 

 empire we meet with smaller; and many of the forests have a 

 swampy bottom. He describes them as 1st, simply low watery 

 land; 2d, swamps, which yield turf formed out of the moss, and 

 even at times produce a little hay ; 3d, bottomless morasses, which 

 appear to be lakes grown over ; they frequently will bear neither 

 man nor beast ; 4th, moss -morasses, the deep and useless moss of 

 which will permit neither grass nor a shrub to grow, or at most, 

 only a few wretched low sticks of fir, &c. which presently wither 

 and die. They are absolutely unprofitable; or at least they are 

 held to be so-f . 



Dr. Woodward observes, that marsh or tuif earth, containing in 

 it nuts, twigs of trees, shrubs, grass, sedge, &c. is found in various 

 parts of England. He particularizes several places, where it is found 

 to abound very much. He obtained it from Hampstead Heath, 

 and from Godalming, in Surrey. At Wilmestow, near Knutsford, 

 in Cheshire, it lay uppermost in the moss, and next the surface ; 



* Pallas's Travels, vol. iii. p. 23. 



t View of the Ruaan Empire, &c. by William Tooke, F.R.S. London, 1390, p. 11. 



