Proceedings of the British Association. 113 



Mr. Darwin announced, that a work on fossil teeth, by Prof. Owen, 

 would shortly be published. 



A communication on Peat Bogs, by Dr. G. H. Adams, was then 

 brought before the meeting. The author had examined microscopically 

 many specimens of peat, and had found them to consist of bundles of 

 little capsules, somewhat similar to bunches of raisins, attached to the 

 radicals of the plants growing on the surface of the bogs. These, he 

 thinks, have never been observed before^ owing to old black portions of 

 bog having been examined. He considers that fallen trees have no 

 connexion with the formation of peat, except as furnishing carbonic acid 

 gas from their decay. He attributes great importance to the well-known 

 power of plants in separating carbonic acid from the atmosphere, and 

 conceives that the preservative power of peat is owing to tannin, which 

 substance may have escaped detection, from its being united to iron, so 

 abundant in heaths, accounting thus for the dark colour of the lower 

 parts of peat formations. The author considers, that the absence of peat 

 in America is owing to the non-existence there of the family of Ericse. 

 He remarks, also, that peat does not serve as a manure, from its little 

 tendency to decomposition ; and he proposes to assist the decomposition 

 by means of sulphuric acid — thus rendering available for agriculture 

 large tracts of bog land now lying useless, especially in Ireland. He 

 compares the analysis of Apotheme, the chief constituent of vegetable 

 mould, with that of gallic acid, and thinks that the action of sulphuric 

 acid on the latter, as contained in peat, wotdd probably produce the 

 former, which is the chief support of vegetation. If putrifying vegeta- 

 ble matter be mixed with peat, its unpleasant odour at once ceases. The 

 author urges the importance of destroying this preservative power of 

 peat, so that it may be converted into a manure — first, by destroying 

 the plants, next by burning or paring the surface, then adding dilute 

 sulphuric acid to it, collected into heaps. 



Mr. J. B. Yates read a paper ' On the changes and improvements in 

 the Embouchure of the Mersey.' — He referred to the new channel in 

 the harbour of Liverpool, which had been brought before the notice of 

 the Association by Capt. Denham. The intricacy of access to this har- 

 bour arises from the accumulation outside of numerous beds of sand, 

 which are frequently and suddenly changing their position and elevation. 

 It can scarcely be doubted, that at some remote period the estuary of 

 the Mersey did not exist at all, or, at most, in a very limited form ; a 

 forest and morass may have occupied the land between Formby Point 

 and Helbre. Numerous trunks and roots of large forest trees are, to this 

 day, found along the Cheshire and Lancashire shores, while extensive 

 tracts of peat are observed in many places starting up among the sands. 

 A violent disruption must have taken place at the mouth of the estuary, 

 by which enormous masses of sand and marie have been thrown out, 

 perhaps proved by the homogeneous structure of the banks on either 

 side. In 1828, a number of human skeletons were disinterred opposite 



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