GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 357 



woody materials are unavailable, it piles them into vast magazines, care- 

 fally prepared a long time in advance, for that purpose. And then, re- 

 versing its operation, slowly combining again the water and the carbonic 

 acid ot the wood, to return them to the atuiosphere as new food for liv- 

 ing plants, it constantly improves the value of the stored materials for a 

 future contingency. Man now recognizes the end of this work, enjoys 

 its results, andean but acknowledge in it the disposition of a wonderful 

 Providence. 



The first result of the decomposition of woody matter in basins pre- 

 pared for the formation of the peat is the generation of an acid, {acid 

 ulmic.) soluble in water, and especially marked by its antiseptic property. 

 "Water saturated with this acid not only retards indefinitely the decom- 

 position of the wood immersed into it, but, under some circumstances, 

 preserves for a length of time every kind of organic matter, even meat. 

 The water does not receive from this compound any unpleasant taste or 

 smell, nor any unwholesome influence. It is as palatable for drink as 

 spring water, merely nnattractive by its somewhat brownish color. Even 

 it may be considered by its antiseptic property a preventive against 

 fever and other epidemic diseases, or a remedy for every kind of dis- 

 eases caused by putrid decomposition of tissue. Statistic tables have 

 established this fact in Europe, that the average of human life is longer 

 for the inhabitants of the peat-bogs or of the land bordering the forma- 

 tions of this kind. This water, too, does not enter into decomposition 

 even when exposed to a high degree of continued heat. It has been 

 carried for eighteen months or more in explorations of equatorial coun- 

 tries, preserving its purity to the end. From this it is easily understood 

 how trees or fragments of wood, thrown down or strewn upon the bogs, 

 become protected against decomposition by a thin carpet of mosses im- 

 pregnated with such kind of water. 



The ulmic acid, soluble in water, becomes fixed or solidified into a 

 black resinous matter, by evaporation of the water, thus forming a pro- 

 portion of the combustible part of the peat, and greatly increasing its 

 value. The difference in the heating properties of the compound, when 

 dried under atmospheric influence or by compression, is sometimes as 

 high as one-fifth. The best peat, therefore, is that which, taken from the 

 bogs by hand or by machinery, is kneaded till the whole has been ren- 

 dered a homogeneous i^aste. The operation is performed in various 

 ways, according to means and circumstances; by pounding with the 

 feet, with wooden mallets, by mills, &c. The peat thus prepared is cut 

 or molded in pieces of suitable size, left upon the ground till somewhat 

 hardened, then dried by successive exposure of the faces to the atmos- 

 phere. Prepared in that way, the i^eat of the old bogs of our tiijae is 

 as good a combustible as hard wood. 



The ulmic acid of the water of the bogs, antagonistic to some kind of 

 vegetation, essentially favors the growth of plants of hard woody tissue. 

 The flora of the peat-bogs is therefore exclusive and limited. It has 

 mostly species with sharp.-pointed narrow leaves — conifers, grasses, 

 sedges, rushes, canes, mosses, and a few shrubs, dwarf-birch, cran- 

 berry, «S:c. The bla'ded form of the leaves appears especially appropri- 

 ate to the absorption of atmospheric humidity, and by their multiple 

 surfaces to the evaporation when superabundance of water demands it. 

 The mosses have not as yet been observed in a fossil state, neither in 

 the Carboniferous nor in the Lignitic formations. The first remains of 

 this class appear in the Upper Tertiary, especially in the amber. But 

 there is not a positive proof of their absence in older formations. 

 Moreover, the peat-bogs of former epochs have ax)pareutly had for their 



