498 



ENCLOSING OF FOSSILS IN PEAT, 



[Ch. XLIV, 



atmospli 



marsli 



In a warm climate, sncli decayed timber would 

 immediately be removed by insects, or by putrefaction ; but, 

 in the cold temperature now prevailing in our latitudes, 

 many examples are recorded of marshes originating in this 



Thus, in Mar forest, in Ahf^rdf^f^nsTiirp. la; 



source 



to have been 



had fallen from age and d 

 immured in neat, formed 



om 



growth of other plants. 



We 



of a forest by a storm, about the middle of the seventeenth 

 century, gave rise to a peat-moss near Lochbroom, in Eoss- 

 shire, and that, in less than half a century after the fall of the 

 trees, the inhabitants dug peat there."^ But the rate at which 

 peat is known to form in places where its growth has been 

 carefully noted by scientific observers, is so slow that it is 

 necessary to receive these accounts with caution. 



Nothing is more common than the occurrence of buried 



bottom 



Holland 



been so often observed with parts of their trunks standing 

 erect, and with their roots fixed to the subsoil, that no doubt 

 can be entertained of their having generally grown on the 

 spot. They consist, for the most part, of the fir, the oak, 

 and the birch: where the subsoil is clay, the remains of 

 oak aTG the most abundant ; where sand is the substratum. 



fir prevails. 



marsh of Curragh, in the Isle of Man 

 -pd fttandino" firm on their roots, thourf 



at the depth of eighteen or twenty feet below the surface. 



have desired to 



refer the imbedding of 



Some naturalists 

 timber in peat-mosses to aqueous transportation, since rivers 

 are well known to float wood into lakes ; but the facts above 

 mentioned show that, in numerous instances, such an hy- 

 pothesis is inadmissible. It has, moreover, been observed, 

 that in Scotland, as also 



many 



t) 



mosses 



the least elevated regions, and that the trees are propor- 



I 



1 



i 



\ 



I 



^ Kennie's Essays on Peat, p. 6o. 





