213 



is rather countenanced by the instances which occur, in the writings 

 of those who have described the peat pits of various parts of the 

 world, of the existence of animal remains in these subterranean 

 situations. 



Thus Dr. Leigh, in his History of Cheshire, relates, that he saw, 

 five yards within the marie, the skeleton of a buck, as standing 

 upon his feet, with the horns on his head, which, the Doctor says, 

 at the time of his writing, were preserved at Ellels Grange, near 

 Lancaster. He likewise informs us, that eight yards within the 

 marie, at Larbrick, near Preston, in Lancashire, the entire head of 

 a stag, of an enormous size, was found. He also mentions, that 

 the head of an hippopotamus was found under the moss in Lan^ 

 cashire. 



Mr. A. de la Prime says *, about fifty years ago, at the very bot- 

 tom of a turf pit, was found a man lying at his length, with his 

 head upon his arm as in a common posture of sleep, whose skin 

 being as it were tanned, by the More water, preserved his shape 

 entire ; but within, his flesh, and most of his bones, were consumed 

 and gone ; an arm of whom, Mr. de la Pryme adds, one of the 

 workmen cut off, and brought home to his master, which is now in 

 the possession of my honoured friend Dr. Nat. Johnson. In the 

 clay lying over the peat, which was lately dug through, in forming 

 the wet docks in the Isle of Dogs, the bones of horses and oxen 

 were also found. 



One more instance remains to be adduced of the formation of 

 oily matter from substances possessing nothing of an oily nature, 

 merely by the aid of a chemical process. In referring to this, I 

 trust a fair opportunity will offer itself of determining whether the 

 formation of naphtha, petroleum, amber, or, in a word, the bitu- 

 mens, may be attributed, or not, to a change induced in vegetable 



'* Phtlosoph, Trans, vol. 



