DR. ANGUS SMITH ON PEAT. 333 



adopted at present ; and, at any rate, if of no nse today, one 

 may amuse oneself in thinking of this as a mode of grow- 

 ing oil to be employed perhaps when whales, oil-wells, and 

 good coal and shale are rather scarcer than at present. 



Peat thus becomes, to use another comparison, like an 

 olive tree to the north, so far as the light of the oil is con- 

 cerned, although the want of beauty and the want of the 

 edible part will certainly strike one as a contrast, little as 

 the beauty of the olive tree is. 



Peat from Helensburgh. 



This peat, when dried, was treated with bisulphide of 

 carbon. The amount of fat &c. extracted is 5*55 per cent. 



The bisulphide was driven off the peat, and the peat was 

 then treated with alcohol. 2*4 per cent, of mixed resins &c. 

 was extracted. 



This substance nearly melts at about ioo° C, and when 

 cold is quite hard and brittle. 



Peat from Stonorway. January 1875. 



5' 5 per cent, of oil and resins was extracted from this 

 peat by warm naphtha. 



2*2 per cent, was extracted with alcohol after the peat 

 had been treated with naphtha. 



7*5 per cent, oil and resins was extracted from the peat 

 with alcohol alone. 



This substance seems much harder and more resinous 

 than that extracted with naphtha. 



The peat was dried before it was treated. 



Peat from Durris. February 24, 1875. 



grains. 



Box and wet peat weighed 16700 

 Box . . . 4200 



Peat . . . 12500 



