86 ' 
it dries, upon exposure to the air, it becomes soon darker ; the dark- 
ness increasing, in the best peat, until it acquires almost the black- 
ness of coal : at the same time it becomes a hard, tough, weighty 
mass, very difficult to be cut, or even broken ; and which, in general, 
contains many remains of vegetable matter. It absorbs water, and 
retains it so strongly, as to be found almost always in a wet state, in 
its natural situation ; hence, wffien near the surface, it forms bogs, 
which are exceedingly dangerous to such animals as attempt to pass 
over them. The best peat is smooth, and cuts clean with the peat- 
spade, being almost of the consistence of soap. 
Like clay that has been burned, peat, on being dried, loses the 
property of forming a tenaceous mass, by the addition of water. 
When properly dried, which is accomplished by cutting it into 
square pieces of the size of a brick, and exposing it to the conjoint 
action of the sun and air, the peat becomes a very combustible sub- 
stance, burning, when pure, with a clear bright flame, and yielding 
a hard firm charcoal, which burns with a vivid glow, until reduced 
to a very small portion of very light and white ash. Sometimes it 
contains small branches and twigs, in which the woody fibres still 
possess so much of their original state, as to give considerable re- 
sistance to the peat- spade. Oftentimes it appears to be a com- 
position of the roots, branches, twigs, and leaves of trees, various 
parts of plants, grass, straw, &c. but little altered in their form, 
although now rendered entirely different in their nature. 
The varieties here enumerated, appear to be the consequences ot 
different degrees of perfection, to which the natural process to 
which these substances have been exposed, has proceeded. But it 
is not the smaller and the less hard parts of vegetables only, which 
are thus found imbedded ; since, frequently, large trees are found in 
different parts of the peat, increasing the expense, and adding to 
the trouble of the peat-digger, by the obstacles they yield to his 
operations. 
