PREHISTORIC FAUNA. 329 



old river-courses, and the peat that grows all over the slopes of moor- 

 lands, high and low. The first is partly formed from drifted vegetable 

 matter in the deeper parts, and from the decay of plants that grow on 

 the spot all round the margin, which therefore encroaches rapidly. Here 

 at the outset we meet with a source of error. The rate is very different 

 in these two cases, the quantity of vegetable matter that drifts far in 

 being generally very small. On the hill-sides the growth is to be re- 

 ferred almost entirely to two or three species of moss, and in a smaller 

 degree to the heather and other plants. As the lower part of the mosses 

 sphagnum and hypnum decay away and add to the layer of peat below, 

 the upper part grows on, and so a thick layer of vegetable matter is at 

 length accumulated. "Workmen tell us that when they have dug a trench 

 into a peat-moss, if they leave it alone it fills up again, or, as they would 

 say, the peat grows again. This happens when the peat is apt during 

 some seasons to be full of water, so as to become a kind of slush or ooze. 

 It is perfectly clear that the apparent rate of accumulation where such 

 filling in occurs must often be deceptive. A good example of a similar 

 thing happening on a large scale in nature is the case of the Solway 

 Moss, and many other instances as recorded by Lyell. 



* So we see that while the peat is being formed it is subject to all 

 kinds of variations, and when it has been formed it is liable to be soaked 

 with water and run, destroying the value of all evidence to be derived 

 from any observation on its rate of growth elsewhere.' 



On the other hand, my own excavations in Roman rubbish-pits have 

 furnished me with something of an argument to set against the reported 

 discovery of hives under peat. When excavating in 1868 (' Archaeologia,' 

 xlii. p. 476, Article XXXIV.) a very large pit of that kind at Frilford, I 

 was much struck with the relatively great abundance amongst the various 

 kinds of earthern vessels there represented by larger or smaller frag- 

 ments of small, often nearly perfect, pots of hard black ware of about the 

 size of a large swan's egg, with the smaller end truncated and flattened 

 and the larger usually provided with a recurved lip for tying a cover 

 over its contents. Now I have never found any of the various and well- 

 known varieties of Roman funeral ware in a Roman rubbish-heap ; every 

 article of daily life, of the coarsest and of the finest kind, whether in 

 pottery or metal, may be found in such deposits ; but within my expe- 

 rience they never contain anything which was destined for the tomb or 

 could bring to mind the ' invisas cupressos.' It is obvious however that 

 such jars might be supposed to be intended for the cosmetic rather than 

 the culinary needs of the luxurious Romans. But for the purposes 

 indicated by Horace (Od. iii. 39) and Persius (Sat. iv. 37), for the 



