Dr. Berger's Account of the Isle of Man . 5(51 
several people. The trees were of the pine tribe, and lay disposed 
in the same direction as those before mentioned, from south-west 
to north-east. Tradition reports a fine meadow to have been 
washed away hereabouts, by the encroachment of the sea at a very 
distant period. 
In addition to these general remarks upon the curraghs, I shall 
mention some observations I made in the parish of Kirk BalafF, 
upon a substance which the farmers use there as a marl. It is 
confined to a spot within the compass of a few acres, and in it are 
found the remains of the gigantic Elk. Over this marl, to which 
I shall presently revert, is a bed of sand six feet thick and of a light 
colour ; upon this lies a kind of peat, about a foot and a half thick, 
composed of rotten leaves, and small branches closely matted 
together, mixed with sprinkles of sand and containing a vast num- 
ber of the exuviae of beetles, bees and their nests, crushed together 
with seed-vessels, rotten, but having their external coating well 
preserved. This bed has not the wet and thoroughly decomposed 
aspect generally to be observed in peat ; probably from the sand 
beneath absorbing the rain and moisture, and thus enabling it to 
remain in a state of unusual preservation. In general the hard 
wings are the only parts of the beetles which are preserved, and 
these are in appearance as fresh as on a living insect. Dr. Leach 
was enabled to identify a few with species at present existing in 
England. Upon this bed lies turf and vegetating matter to the 
depth of one or two feet. 
The marl which lies beneath the sand is very different in 
appearance from the substances generally known by that name. 
It is white or greyish, and the fracture resembles that of a highly 
decomposed peat, though rather more earthy, and through it are 
dispersed in every direction the traces of small branches and roots, 
which partake of the character of the mass, and only become 
