64 FIRST FORMS OF VEGETATION. 
Laplanders use it instead of clothes for their new- 
born babes, packing their cradles firmly with it; 
and in seasons of scarcity it enters into the composi- 
tion of their bread. The dense fork-moss, when 
twisted, is used by the Esquimaux for lamp-wicks, 
a purpose which it very inadequately performs. 
But this is about all that can be said of their value 
toman. Inthe economy of Nature, however, they 
are extremely useful. They contribute to the 
diffusion and preservation of vegetable life, both 
by the soil which their decay supplies, and by the 
shelter which they afford to the roots of trees and 
plants in very hot or very cold weather. Peat is 
almost entirely composed of mosses. This sub- 
stance is usually found in great basin-shaped hol- 
lows, or valleys among the hills, formerly covered 
with indigenous forests of birch, alder, and hazel, 
or with the waters of a mountain lake. In the for- 
mer case, the rotting of the fallen trees produced 
a rich black mould where mosses luxuriated ; 
these mosses acted like sponges, and absorbed the 
moisture from the atmosphere, and retained the 
rains when they fell, forming shallow marshes 
around the fallen trees. More mosses were de- 
veloped by this moisture, and more moisture was 
accumulated by these mosses; and thus the mutual 
process went on, one layer of moss decaying in 
its lower parts, and increasing by additions to 
