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Peat Moors of the Pennines. 



below the peat ; and Pennine peat is never beneath glacial clay ; 

 and Mr. Moss summarises by saying- that the Pennine peat 

 cannot be older than 2,000 years, and probably dates from the 

 Roman conquest. 



The author discusses at some leng-th the conditions of peat 

 formation ; and g-ives a diagrammatic section, showing the 

 various layers of peat resting- on moor-pan, which is Instructive. 

 In this five layers are indicated : — (i) growing" plants ; (2) plant 

 remains not sufficiently decomposed to be yet termed 'peat'; 

 (3) brown peat ; (4) black peat ; (5) thin layer of moor-pan ; 

 (6) underlying subsoil. It is only recently that this moor-pan 

 has been recognised ; but we remember a geologist of some 

 eminence pointing out what was probably this layer as a thin 

 seam of glacial debris. But this was a dozen years ago or more. 



The Pennine moors, says Mr. Moss, represent a valuable 

 asset which is turned to little account. Grouse are driven and 

 shot over them, it is true. Of late years, too, town and city 

 corporations have utilised the peat moors as gathering grounds 

 for reservoirs ; but there is not a single peat factory on the 

 whole of the Pennine Chain. Formerly the inhabitants of the 

 moor-edges possessed turf-cutting rights ; but these in nearly 

 all cases seem to have been lost. There is, Mr. Moss calculates, 

 fuel enough in the Penniiie peat to last the hillside population 

 a thousand years. The grassy and heathy moor-edges are fit, 

 with a small amount of preparation, to be at once either 

 re-afforested or turned into farmland ; and as the peat is 

 cleared from the higher altitudes, the surface thus laid bare 

 could be given over to the farmer or the forester. In these days, 

 when a shortage of timber seems to be the precursor of a timber 

 famine, the question of the afforestation of waste lands is one 

 that will more and more engage the attention of practical men ; 

 and the author confidently expects that succeeding generations 

 will undoubtedly see, what the Britons and the Romans in their 

 times saw, the Pennine Hills clothed with trees. 



We hope that Mr. Moss's interesting paper will create a new 

 interest in these moors. Not only have the turf-cutting rights 

 disappeared, but rights of way are becoming year by year 

 more restricted, which could not occur but for the apathy of 

 naturalists and pedestrians. The Pennine moors possess a 

 grandeur peculiar to themselves, which is not fully appreciated. 

 The views — from photographs taken by Mr. Crump — are 

 representative of Pennine scenery, and we reproduce two of 

 these by permission of the editor of the ' Geographical Journal.' 



Naturalist, 



