1917] FORSAITH— ALLOCTHONOUS PEAT 205 



I 



prevent any appreciable amassing of vegetable matter other than 

 that protected by a continuous covering of water. Studies of coal 

 sections indicate that similar processes were as effectual in the 

 past, for there is a universal deficiency of strictly autocthonous coals 

 as revealed by the microscope (8). 



Although this prehistoric lycopod flora, growing on the low- 

 lying shores of ancient lakes, was different from that which now 

 enters into the formation of peat, the process by which fragmentary 

 material was derived from this cryptogamic growth was un- 

 doubtedly the same. Jeffrey (8), as a result of his studies of 

 sections of coal from all over the world, has found that all categories 

 from cannel to anthracite show spores of arboreal cryptogams 

 in varying amounts, just as the peats of today show different pro- 

 portions of pollen. In addition to the many spores carried into 

 these carboniferous lagoons by the wind, sluggish streams brought 

 microscopic debris in all stages of decay. This detritus was pre- 

 cipitated, and the allocthonous peat was augmented by an age-long 

 process of sedimentation. A continuance of such conditions 



mass 



m 



swamps. This bog-loving flora did not, however, add in any appre- 

 ciable degree to the substance already accumulated, owing to their 

 rapid decay in a fallen state, both as a result of a warm climate and 

 its less resistant organization. In fact, all microscopical evidence 

 points to a condition very similar to that already described for 

 recent peat deposits, the major part of which is quite conclusively 

 shown to be of drifted derivation. 



Another fact which supports the allocthonous theory of coal 

 formation, is the vast predominance of lacustrine peat over in situ 

 deposits at the present time. This fact has been well illustrated 

 by the several strata already mentioned, such as those found in 



lakes (swamps), and river estuaries. The phe- 



filled 



warm 



almost 



Thus it is apparent that the mode of peat formation, as illus- 

 trated by its anatomical structure and topographical features, shows 

 strikingly similar analogies in coal. It must be assumed, therefore, 



