Ancient Peat Bog near Oldham. 



37 



now living grizzly bear of North America, the Arctic fox, the tailless 

 hare, and reindeer, shared with primeval Britons the meagre fare of an 

 uncharitable soil. We can form no conception of the time that has 

 elapsed since these events and changes took place, but you will agree 

 with me that that time must be immense, if you will bear in mind 

 that since their occurrence sea and land have changed their relative 

 level, the rigours of the climate have been softened, the configuration 

 of the country has been altered, and a general change in the plants and 

 animals has been effected, these latter having migrated to more 

 northern latitudes, or where the conditions of cold, moisture, &c., such 

 as their nature loves and requires, can still be found. Appearances of 

 great physical changes, I think, are plainly visible in the section before 

 us. The bed of gravel enclosing waterworn pebbles and boulders, at 

 the base of the section, may be taken to represent a shallow water or 

 shore deposit, indicating a thickening of the accumulation, or, pro- 

 bably, a rising of the land generally. At this point a pause in the 

 upward tendency seems to have ensued. This pause was of sufficient 

 duration to allow of the uninterrupted growth of innumerable genera- 

 tions of aquatic and other plants, whose buried remains have built up 

 the bed of peat which we have this evening come to see. At length 

 the further growth was, by some means, arrested. I know the danger 

 I incur in hazarding an opinion as to the nature and extent of these 

 changes, but will venture to suggest that the period of growth was 

 finally closed by the slow and gradual subsidence of the area, which 

 subsidence continued till the thickness of say 100 feet of subsequent 

 deposits was attained. This bed of peat differs from other beds with 

 which we are acquainted, in this, that it is infinitely older than 

 the more familiar examples. In proof of its greater age let us 

 remember that, while the more recent peat growths are invariably 

 found above the boulder clay, the example before us is beneath the 

 identical beds, thus proving its seniority. 



" It is quite impossible to determine, with an\' degree of accuracy, the 

 nature and the number of species of plants whose remains have gone 

 towards the making up of this bed of peat. The conditions for 

 preserving them have not been sufficiently favourable, and the time 

 that has elapsed since they lived has been too great for the solution 

 of the problem. With the aid of the microscope, however, I have thus 

 far been enabled to recognise some four or five species of mosses only, 

 with a few thin stems exhibiting exogenous structure, and belonging 

 to a higher order of plants, a few leaves of what I believe to be grasses, 

 and to give to Caesar Caesar's due, let me add that my eldest son has 



