Peat. 



119 



abstracting the oxygen and hydrogen of the vegetable and leaving 

 the carbon to predominate. 



Numerous as are the deposits of peat in Massachusetts, very little 

 need be said concerning it. The localities where it has been found 

 most abundant, are noticed on the map ; though doubtless many others 

 would be found equally prolific, if sought after. All the varieties no- 

 ticed by authors — the marsh — the lake — the forest — the maritime and 

 the transported peat — are found here. Indeed, according to the defi- 

 nition that has been given of this substance, it is perfectly obvious 

 that not a town in the state can be named where more or less of it 

 does not exist. The eastern section, however, is certainly best stored 

 with those varieties that may be employed for fuel. And it is an 

 unexpected fact, that the southeastern parts of the State, which abound 

 with sand, contain also a large amount of peat. According to a sur- 

 vey by Lt. Prescott, the island of Nantucket and the small adjacent 

 islands of Thuckanuck, Muskegut, and Gravel, contain 30,590 acres ; 

 of which, 1050 are fresh ponds, and 650 are peat swamps: the beds 

 being from 1 to 14 feet thick, and generally of good quality. This 

 must afford an inexhaustible supply of fuel for the inhabitants ; and 

 yet I was surprised to learn, that although the price of fuel is very 

 high there, peat is not much employed. This perhaps results from 

 the habit of bringing almost every article used on the island from 

 abroad ; or more probably from the general thrift and comfortable 

 circumstances of the inhabitants, which enable them to employ the 

 kind of fuel that is most pleasant ; and who is there that would not 

 prefer wood to peat % 



The process by which peat is produced, must be 'every year less 

 prolific in its results; especially in this country. For many swamps 

 are already so much filled as to raise the plants on their surface too 

 high to receive the requisite moisture. And besides, the trees and 

 shrubs are cleared away from many, and their surfaces converted 

 into fields for producing grass. Some very fine mowing lots of this 

 description may be seen a little west of the village in Nantucket : 

 and over the whole surface of that island, scarcely a tree or shrub is 

 now to be seen, so that here the formation of peat has probably in a 

 good measure ceased. The peat swamps there (as they now are in 

 many parts of the southeast extremity of the State) were probably 

 once covered with the white cedar. 



According to the Messrs. Danas, trunks of trees, generally of some 



