GEOLOGICAL AGE AND FORMATION. 61 



3ven seven feet, were found, but rarely. The accompany, 

 ing cut was taken from a sketch of the swamp. It gives 

 a correct general impression, though in the thrifty growth 

 of trees these trunks are not half tall enough for their 

 diameters. 



The soil in which these trees grow is a black peaty earth, 

 which, when dry, will burn. It is of various depths. 

 Several soundings in the swamp near the Burnt Causeway, 

 showed a depth of from two to eight feet ; which was the 

 deepest. Soundings in the Great Cedar Swamp near Long 

 Bridge showed the gravel bottom to be from six to eight 

 feet below the surface. Near Dennisville it has been found 

 thirteen feet deep, with no mixture of mud or any foreign 

 substance. It is very loose and porous, and always full of 

 water. The trees which grow on it have their roots run- 

 ning through it in every direction near the surface, but not 

 penetrating to the solid ground. Their evergreen leaves 

 keep it continually shaded, and cool; and these conditions, 

 with the constant presence of water, retard the decay of 

 the twigs and leaves which fall every year: and thus there 

 is a continual and rapid increase in the amount of this 

 peaty soil, or muck. Mr. Charles Ludlam told me, that he 

 recently found a log in the swamps which, from its cut 

 ends, he was satisfied had lain there ever since the timber 

 was last cut off", which was sixty years ago. It was about 

 a foot in diameter, and the accumulation of matter on the 

 surface since that time was enough to entirely bury it. 

 Timber which is buried in the swamp undergoes scarcely 

 any change ; trees which are found several feet under the 

 surface, and which must have lain there for hundreds of 



