FORMATION OF PEAT 189 



is produced. The formation of peat can be observed now, and there 

 are instances on record of peat districts which have arisen with 

 great rapidity. In 1651, the then Earl of Cromartie relates that a 

 district near Loch Broom, on the west of Ross-shire, was covered 

 with standing wood, the trees being entirely leafless and stripped 

 of their bark. It was a pine forest in one of its last stages. Some 

 years afterwards, when again in the neighbourhood, he found 

 the plain completely bare of trees and the whole ground covered 

 with moss. Upon inquiring what had become of the trees, and 

 who had carried them away, he was told that they had all been 

 uprooted by the winds and lay underneath the green moss. Before 

 1699 he states that the country people came there to dig turf 

 and peat. Thus in half a century a peat-bog was formed on the 

 site of a pine forest. In Ireland there are vast peat districts; 

 it has been calculated that peat-bogs occupy at least one-seventh 

 of its area. Extensive bogs are also found in Scotland and in the 

 west and north of England. They are formed in alluvial districts : 

 Sedgemoor consists largely of peat, which it is known existed in 

 the time of the Roman occupation, for they burnt it in their kilns ; 

 now the district is very well drained, and the formation of peat is 

 a thing of the past. 



To understand the structure of peat, a peat-bog where the peat 

 is being cut should be visited. Three layers can be made out : 

 on the top, the brownish layer of roots and fibres, not very closely 

 woven together, which is being dug out in square sods to be used 

 as fuel. Underneath this comes a blacker mass, consisting of 

 decomposed plants and looking like rotten wood. This is lignite. 

 It is much less compact than the topmost layer, but still is firm 

 enough to dig out in what is popularly called " long squares/* which 

 are dried and stacked. The third and lowest layer is not unlike 

 coal in appearance. The thickness of each layer varies from 

 a few inches to several feet. They rest on an impervious soil, 

 such as boulder clay or shell marl, for the peat could not have been 

 formed unless the bed on which it rests was water-tight. An 

 examination of a peat-bog then shows that peat is made up of 

 the roots, stems, leaves, and other parts of plants, chiefly of Mosses 

 and Liverworts. These gradually decay, and in decomposing 

 give off oxygen and hydrogen, the solid carbon remaining behind. 



