CHAP. VIIL 



PEAT BOG. 



WITH A VIEW TO THE IMPROVEMENT OF ITS 

 UNDER-SURFACE. 



By the under surface, (perhaps the phrase may be im- 

 proper) I mean the new surface laid bare when the un- 

 wieldy mass of peat that touched it, and impeded its 

 improvement, is carried off. 



This is an Herculean labour, too weighty to be repaid by 

 the acquisition of the ground hitherto useless, but now ap- 

 plicable to agricultural purposes. Some very favourable 

 circumstances must occur, to enable the proprietor to 

 disencumber himself of this Homeric 



— Elaaiov Cix,0o5 apoupri^ — 



this cumbrous mass of earth, before he can avail himself 

 of the new field that has not yet been exposed to the view 

 of man. 



In Scotland, ingenuity has devised means of making 

 the under-surface accessible. Mr. Drummond Home has 

 contrived means of conveying his useless masses of peat 

 into the river Forth, which carries them off, leaving him- 

 self a valuable soil, inaccessible to him before, but ol 



