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for several weeks, and is expected to continue till the rain or springs 

 extinguish it. The same land burnt, in the same manner, about 

 forty years ago. Perhaps this hypothesis, of its kindling by fer- 

 mentation, may be confirmed by the frequent firing of hay-stacks 

 this year, of which we have had many more instances than in several 

 years before/' 



Upon the authority of Schoockius, we learn that this species of 

 combustion is no rare occurrence in the peat-pits of Germany. 

 More or less frequently, he says, it happens ; but chiefly when the 

 heat has been more violent, and the rains have fallen less plentifully, 

 that either by accident, or by some one's malice, not only the dry 

 peat, but even the marshy earth itself, become drier than usual, 

 is set on fire ; when the flame spreads far and wide, occasioning a 

 calamity, not less dreadful to those labourers who dwell at the pits, 

 whose little hovels it lays waste and reduces to ashes, than to those 

 who derive their livelihood from these pits. For this reason, proper 

 watchmen are appointed to go round, not merely to keep it toge- 

 ther in heaps, but to be ready to extinguish, in time, the fire which 

 might break out. This they do not so much by water, which is not 

 always found in sufficient quantity, as by smothering it, by turning 

 over it with shovels the adjoining earth. If this be not done, the 

 flames continually acquiring more fuel, the fire ravages, not for a 

 few days, but for weeks and even months, as dreadful experience 

 has shown, so that the extended plain may be regarded as a lamen- 

 table and distressful kind of volcano. 



Thus far, I may surely venture to remark, that analogy confirms 

 the opinion, that peat is the product of peculiar fermentation. 



Yours, &c. 



