REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR AND STATE GEOLOGIST 1903 79 



Jn the ceiitral portion of the marsh, however, no living trees are 

 to be seen, but here and there are the bare trunks of cedars amid 

 the luxuriant growth of sphagnum moss and cranberry bushes. 

 The sphagnum is both red and green, but the different species were 

 not determined. The trunks of fallen trees in many places are indi- 

 cated by streaks of gray lichens, while underneath circular clumps 

 of the same lichens are found glacial boulders. The depth of the 

 bog is a matter of surprise when the large area is considered. In 

 no place is the entire accumulation of moss and peat more than 4 

 feet deep, and in many places the shallowness of the deposit is 

 evinced by the glacial boulders which show above the surface. A 

 somewhat remarkable circumstance is the apparent avoidance of 

 these boulders by the sphagnum moss, for almost invariably, the 

 boulder is surrounded by a pool of black water in which the 

 sphagnum does not grow as luxuriantly as in the remainder of the 

 swamp. The peat is of apparently good quality and is underlain 

 by a bed of fine sand, which is well cemented, so as to be almost a 

 sandstone, though it breaks up readily in exposed places. The 

 character of this sand is shown in the ditches at the side of the 

 railroad, where a small waterfall has been formed by the wearing 

 away of the uncemented sand beneath the harder layer imme- 

 diately underlying the peat. The existence of sand underneath 

 bogs seems to be characteristic of the Adirondack and northern 

 New York swamps, as many of the cedar swamps have such 

 material beneath the peat, instead of the clay that is so much 

 more common in the marshy deposits of the central part of the 

 State. 



Madrid and Knapp station. About 2 miles west of Madrid, St 

 Lawrence oo., on the Ogdensburg & Lake Champlain Railroad, is a 

 bog extending along the railroad for about a mile and a half on 

 each side. On the south side of the railroad it is said to be about 

 a mile wide, while on the north side it extends for several miles. 

 Much of the surface is covered with arbor vitae, and very little 

 if any sphagnum moss is to be found; none was noticed by the 

 author. Parts of the swamp have been cleared, and on the north 



