89 
there is an extensive peat moss, thirty miles long, having its surface 
but little elevated above that of the sea*. 
Peat appears to have been long in use, as fuel, in different parts 
of Germany. Thus iEneas Sylvius Piccolominaus, in 1458, in his 
History of the Military Transactions of Frederic III. having occasion 
to speak of some part of Friesland, rendered worthy of notice by 
some interesting military event, describes it as ‘‘a smooth and 
marshy plain ; abounding in grass, but without wood. The inha- 
bitants supporting their fires by a bituminous turf, mixed with the 
dried dung of oxen.” 
Ludovicus Guicciardinus, who wrote very early on the geography 
and natural history of Holland, remarks, that the combustible turf, 
called by the names of torff or turf, which abounds in Holland, 
is of so much consequence, as to have had the strongest claim to 
his attention. 
Cuthbert Tonstall, Bishop of Durham, in the reign of Henry VHI. 
notices the very general use of turf, as fuel, in Zealand ; the heavy 
inconveniences arising from the smoke of which, he complains of to 
Erasmus in a very energetic lamentation. If, says he, you remain at 
home in the city, the smoke of the turf (for, says he, they burn this 
in the place of wood) fills your nostrils from the surrounding neigh- 
bourhood. These, when dug from moist and salt places, however 
much they may have been dried in the sun, yield a smoke, whilst 
they burn, which penetrates into your very breast, and attacks, at 
once, your nostrils, head, and chest. 
Turf, it is probable, might be found in most parts of the world ; 
the lowlands of almost every country of Europe possess it, and it 
particularly abounds in many parts of Holland and of Germany, 
in Brabant, Transilvania, Groningen, Zealand, Friesland, England, 
Scotland, and Ireland, and indeed in all the northern parts of 
* Anderson on Peat-Moss. 
VOL. I. N 
