82 • TRANSACTIONS. 1 897-8. 



on draining is very considerable and amounted in this case to 

 about two feet. 



The surface of the consolidated bog- is a much pleasanter 

 place now than it ever could have been before. Except for 

 the canals and drains you can walk over it everywhere with- 

 out inconvenience. Standing in the middle of the Asten 

 Moor the outlook is strange and almost impressive. As far as 

 the eye can reach there is nothing but moor, but the mono- 

 tony of the scene is very much relieved by the gigantic stacks 

 of moss sods dried and ready for milling. 



The Asten moor was not brought into this condition 

 without much labor, carried on after the adoption of a plan 

 thoroughly well thought out, and during the lapse of many 

 years. The unwatering began 20 years ago and had to be 

 done gradually, the first drain being dug only to a depth of 

 about 18 inches. No deeper digging was possible until after 

 the surface part had settled and solidified to such an extent 

 as to prevent the rolling down of the fluid moss into the 

 drain, and the consequent loss of all the labor. After the 

 consolidation of the upper 18 inches, another deeper cut of 12 

 inches was made in the drain for carrying off the water ; 

 then intervened another delay for allowing the bog to settle, 

 and by repeating this process, the gradual consolidation or 

 compression of the ten feet to the eight feet thickness was 

 effected ; very slowly and at a rate not exceeding one foot 

 annually. It may be thought that it goes without saying that 

 the solidification of such a semi-liquid mass could have been 

 effected in no other way, but we shall learn, later on, that 

 other methods have been tried elsewhere, with very disastrous 

 results to the parties interested. 



One of the most remarkable phenomena to be observed 

 on the Asten moor is the construction in it of canals filled 

 with water, in w^hich scows are floating for conveying the 

 dried sods from various points on the moor to the mill. That 

 such canals can exist without again impregnating the bog with 

 water, and converting the peat and litter into their original 

 semi-fluid state seems astonishing, and yet there are plainly 

 to be seen, within a distance of six feet from each other, the 

 canals in question and ditche>; by means of which the bog has 

 been unwatered, the latter containing only driblets of water 

 oozing from the bog. 



(Here the lecturer gave more minute details of the man- 

 ner of producing moss litter at Asten.) 



Of course there are works for the production of moss lit- 



